


How Sam and Blaine Saved the World

by Rachel_Nightwriter



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Endgame Blam, Gen, Humor, M/M, Romance, Romantic Friendship, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-04-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:31:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1228219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachel_Nightwriter/pseuds/Rachel_Nightwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Future AU. Sam is working in a café when a weird customer comes in and changes his life. He is taken to another world with the task to save it. Just what is he supposed to do and how? Luckily he has one of his Glee friends with him. But then again Blaine is just as clueless as him so… Will they be able to save the world and return home gloriously or will they DIE?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

„One Caramel Latte Macchiato, small. And no sugar.”

„No sugar won’t be – “ Sam interrupted his answer as he looked up from wiping a plate. No one was standing in front of the counter. Some customers were sitting at the tables, drinking their coffee’s, reading books or browsing at their computers but no one was anywhere close to him.

“Do I have to repeat myself or what?”

There it was again! Clear and loud, the voice of a grown man. Sam leaned over the counter and saw that someone actually was standing there. Well, or rather something. A little green-skinned goblin with ridiculously long ears. He had his arms crossed and patted his foot on the ground.

“If I had wanted to wait half an hour I would’ve gone to Starbucks”, he said.

“You can’t order something with caramel and then demand it to be sugarless”, Sam said. Was this real or was he dreaming? No one looked surprised to see a goblin – well, no one looked at all.

“Obviously I meant no _extra_ sugar!” The goblin stamped his little foot heavily on the ground and despite the fact Sam still didn’t know whether he was dreaming or not he hurried to the coffee machine. You wouldn’t want to risk worsening the mood of an already ill-tempered goblin.

“Mr Evans… what are you doing?”

His boss Mr Smith had come out – right now, of course – and frowned at him.

“Serving a customer!”

Mr Smith looked to the apparently empty counter and back at Sam.

“Go round and take a look.”

Mr Smith didn’t do anything.

“If you want to drink a coffee during your break that’s cool. But you’re still on your shift”, he said.

“I swear I’m – just go and look!” Sam gesticulated to the counter. Finally Mr Smith went to the front of the counter. In anticipation of his astonished face Sam already nodded.

Mr Smith turned to him.

“Is this a bad joke or what?”

“I didn’t _make_ him!”

“I am not a joke!” the goblin said.

“You didn’t make what, Mr Evans? There is no one. I will let this go just this time but if I catch you drinking coffee once more…”

“I didn’t drink coffee!”

Mr Smith silently shook his head and went back to the kitchen. Sam stood motionless, not sure what was going on. And the goblin complained again.

“If I wanted to have cold coffee I would’ve gone to McDonalds!”

Sam tried to shake the craziness off of him. When he leaned over the goblin was still standing there. Sam quickly took a look around before he reached the mug down to him.

“That’s five dollars and –”

“Ah, do I look like I have human currency? Keep your bill!”

And _poof_ it vanished into thin air – with the coffee nonetheless.

“Okaaaaay”, Sam mumbled. He looked to other costumers. They weren’t bothered at all. Maybe it had been a hallucination. Not that Sam had ever had one before. But what other explanation could there be? Yeah… hallucination, that’s it.

“Sam Evans? Sam Evans?”

“Yeah, that’s me”, Sam said. He put the goblin far, far away and concentrated on the man that had just stormed in. A girl on the table next to the door threw him a complaining look so he was real, a real human being.

Just who was he and how did he know Sam’s name?

“Sam Evans! There you are! Oh, my daughter is looking for you! See, she’s a princess and wants to marry –”

“Sorry, I’m with someone!” Sam quickly said.

The man paused to laugh. He opened his white beard framed mouth and let out the loudest laugh Sam had ever heard. More customers frowned at him.

Eventually he leaned onto his black stick and observed Sam curiously.

“You think a princess would want to marry you?”

“If your daughter is a princess, are you a king?”

“Of course. But I’m also a wise man who looks for solutions and everything. See, giant rats attacked our kingdom and have taken it over. We only managed to escape because my insane son had built an arch and collected a lot of –”

“Animals? One female and one male of each species?”

The man snorted. “If only. No, he collected every possible Pokémon card there is and tried to hide them on this ship. I pushed them all over board so the rats couldn’t follow us and it worked. The Pokémon cards saved our royal asses. Who would’ve guessed it.”

“Yeah, no, I certainly not!” Sam rolled his eyes and made a mental note to hide his Pokèmon monopoly game under his bed later.

“Well, anyway, we are on a spooky island now where only goblins live – by the way, have you seen one? I thought I saw him walking in here.”

He looked around. Sam put his head back and clenched his fists.

“Yes! Not a hallucination, I knew it! I’m not insane!”

The man eyed him suspiciously. “That’s what my son always says but we know he _is_ insane. His mother had him tested.”

“Whatever! None of my busyness! My shift is almost over.”

Sam looked at his watch. It had a Captain America motive and he hoped the weird old man had nothing against that – but on the other hand why should that bother Sam?

“You are Sam Evans so it is your business! You are the chosen one.”

“Okaaaay. Still, I’m meeting with my boyfriend in half an hour so if this could wait until tomorrow...”

The man pushed his stick loudly to the ground and Sam could’ve sworn he saw lightning coming out of his eyes.

“Mr Evans, what on earth – oh. Hello. Is there a problem?” Mr Smith appeared next to Sam and suspiciously eyed the weird man.

“Yes, Sam Evans refuses to come with me to save the earth from being destroyed!”

“Woah there! You never said anything about the apocalypse!” Sam said.

Mr Smith opened his mouth. Then he closed it and looked at Sam.

“Is this one of your LARP friends? I told you to not bring them here!”

“Mr Smith, I have never seen this man ever before, I swear.”

“Please get out. You, too, Mr Evans, you are fired!”

“You can’t fire me, I’m… I’m such a good… coffee maker!”

“I’ll find someone new. Go, get out, go go go!”

Reluctantly Sam took off his apron and rumpled it before he gave it to Mr Smith, ha! But then he stood in front of his workplace of the last four month – _Lovely Coffee Lovely Bird_ – and sighed. Now what? Part time jobs were hard to get by these times! All while New York landlords weren’t empathetic at all and that was the worst mix of facts ever.

Sure, Sam could maybe try to get a job in the field he had actually studied to work in but… he’d have to work on an application and all that then. Not to mention that there were very many product designers out there and Sam wasn’t the best of them all. There was a reason as to why he had worked in a coffee shop instead, damn it!

“So yeah, the world will be destroyed if you don’t come with me”, the bearded man picked up the conversation.

Sam turned to him. “It’s your fault I got fired!”

“Who cares. Just agree and I take you to my world.”

“As said before I’m on my way to a date. And not in the mood to save any worlds.”

“Not even your own?”

In that moment another man came round the corner. Luckily it was one of Sam’s friends so no danger here!

As soon as Blaine had arrived Sam hid behind him.

“Tell the weird man to go away!”

“Oh, you must be Gandalf the thirtieth! I have heard so much about you!” Blaine said and shook the weird man’s hand.

“What the hell?” Sam said.

Blaine turned to him with the most enthusiastic expression ever.

“This is Gandalf the thirtieth! He lives in another dimension called Over-Earth and his daughter needs to marry the prince of Under-Earth so that Middle-Earth – where we live – can continue to exist!”

“Whaaaat the prince of Under-earth? That sounds scary! Why?”

Blaine’s eyes got big. “Please, Sam, don’t question the motives of fate! The important thing here is that you need to help him because otherwise the world will end.”

“Okay, first of all: how do you know this shit? Second: Why does he need _me_? Third: Rory is waiting for me, I can’t just go to other dimensions!”

“What is more important, saving the world or your relationship?”

“Are you telling me you would leave Kurt for a mission?”

“I totally would, really, honestly! But this is your call, Sam, not mine.”

“Uhem, can I say something?” the weird man asked.

“No!” both Blaine and Sam said.

However, the weird man a.k.a. Gandalf the thirtieth held up a smart phone.

“Fate update! I’m gonna need both of you.”

Blaine went pale. “What?”

Sam secretly smirked and Gandalf XXX nodded.

“I just got a text from her, we also need Blaine Anderson.”

“How do you know my name?” Blaine asked while Sam had a much more important question.

“Who said this?”

“Well, Fate.”

“Fate sent you a text?”

“Oh for Over-Earths sake, how often do I have to say it?”

“I can’t just leave this world”, Blaine said. “My boyfriend is waiting for me.”

“As is mine!”

“I assume you’re talking about Kurt Hummel and Rory Flanagan. I ordered my insane son to kidnap them both and lock them away so that we have leverage to make you two come with me.”

“How did you know you also need leverage for me when Fate just updated you?” Blaine asked.

“Because I travelled or rather will travel back in time! Seriously, what do you humans know?”

“Duh, Blaine, even I could have told you this”, Sam said, rolling his eyes.

Then he started to think. So Rory was in captivity of an insane prince and could only be saved by going on a crazy adventure that included inter-dimensional travel and giant rats. How hadn’t he seen before how good this sounded? Like a real life movie. Everything would end well anyhow. It always did in the movies.

He met Blaine’s gaze and silently asked him what he thought. Blaine sighed and then nodded.

“What do we have to do?” he asked Gandalf XXX.

Gandalf XXX smiled, clapped his hands and everything around Sam got dark.

-

The next thing Sam knew was that he was lying in a huge hammock. His surroundings were dark and cold and some unknown bird sounds pealed out in rustling trees. A blanket laid over him so his body wasn’t as cold as the air that touched his face. It also helped that someone was lying next to him, snoring.

Other than that no human or otherwise living being was to be seen.

“Blaine?” Sam whispered. When no answer came, he pushed his elbow into the other one’s side. Immediately the snoring stopped and Blaine yawned.

“Where am I?”

“I’m not sure”, Sam said. In the darkness he saw Blaine lifting his head and looking at him.

“Oh, you aren’t Kurt.”

“Thank God!”

“What that’s supposed to mean?”

“It means that I like being me.”

“Oh.” Blaine sat up and made the hammock swing. It also pulled the blanket off of Sam and cold air hit his chest and arms. He threw them around his waist and narrowed his eyes.

“Why did they put us into the wilderness when they need us that urgent?”

“Maybe this is part of the task. Do you think I will be eaten if I touch the ground?”

Sam snorted. “This is another dimension, not a child’s game.”

“Well. I knew that. I was just testing you”, Blaine said and swung his legs to the side. Still he stepped on the ground very carefully, first one foot, then the other.

Sam pulled the blanket all around him and tried to warm up again. Let Blaine do the work and then return home gloriously.

“Where are we?” Blaine asked again.

“Oh, just in my humble kingdom!”

Suddenly lights went on. They came from a tree-house in a huge maple tree right in front of them. It was three stories large and shone like a golden apple. On a balcony stood a man with a black long ponytail and elf-like clothes.

He spread his arms.

“Welcome, chosen ones!”

“Are you Gandalf’s insane son?” Sam asked. He got up, too, and glared at the wooden house.

The man sighed. He jumped down and landed in front of them.

“I’m not insane, I’m –”

“Is your name Gandalf the thirty-first?” Blaine wanted to know.

“No, okay, it is not! I refused to be called like that and that’s why they all think I’m insane! But seriously would you want to be called like everybody who came before you?”

“Then what is your name?” Sam asked. “And please don’t say Frodo.”

“Fr – what? No, my name is…” He bowed before them and spread his arms again. “Summerwhine.”

Sam blinked, his head empty. He exchanged a look with Blaine whose expression was as blank as his own had to be and looked back at the elf.

“Excuse me?”

“Summerwhine. First I thought about ‘ _Midsummer Night’s Dream’_ but that’s pretty long, don’t you think?”

“Summerwhine is long, too”, Sam said. He felt a grin creeping up and suppressed it. Go back, go back, don’t smile now. What a stupid name, oh my God. Could Summerwhine only whine during the summer or what?

“Yeah, so… long. That’s it. Long”, Blaine said.

Sam kneaded his hands and also forbid himself to look at Blaine who had sounded like he suppressed a laugh, too.

Summerwhine shook his head. “It’s so short that it’s a scandal. People think I’m insane.”

“Yeah… We got that”, Blaine said.

“So… they think you’re insane because your name is short and not…because…”

Sam glanced at Blaine. Unfortunately the black haired man looked at him, too, and as soon as their eyes met Sam felt the grin creeping on his face. Blaine laughed and then the both of them couldn’t do anything else anymore.

“What, what? Do I have a spider in my hair again?” Summerwhine drove his hands through his hair but Sam couldn’t breathe let alone say anything.

“Summerwhiiiiiine!” a woman’s voice called. He stopped examining his hair and shuddered.

“What now!?”

The laugh attack faded away. Sam held his stomach that literally hurt from laughing and shook his head.

“Wow. Okay, we’re in a strange, maybe dangerous place and we just laughed our asses off. I think we’re the ones being insane.”

“Oh… ah. Yes.” Blaine rocked with one more laughter.

“Let’s go! Princess Sherenade-Ukelele will want to see you”, Summerwhine said.

“Princess Sh… what? Oh Lord”, Blaine said.

But Summerwhine was already approaching the tree. A ladder hung there and he started to climb.

“So he can’t jump upstairs”, Sam said. “Found his weakness.”

“Or maybe he can and just screws with us”, Blaine said as they went to the tree.

“Well… I wouldn’t mind being screwed by him”, Sam grinned.

“You… Okay, I will pretend that I didn’t hear this”, Blaine said.

“Why? Don’t you think he’s hot?”

Sam pointed upstairs where Summerwhine in tight white pants climbed above them, his backside the most obvious thing to be seen.

“Does it matter? I’m in a relationship! You are, too! What would Rory say!?” Blaine shook his head.

“It’s not like I’m doing anything, come on! Just looking! Don’t tell me you never look at other men!”

“Well… maybe.”

Sam grinned his ‘ _I knew it’_ smile but before he could ask for details Blaine said: “But just because Kurt and I aren’t as passionate as we used to be. I totally wouldn’t otherwise! I wouldn’t even notice!”

“You – oh. I didn’t know. I’m sorry”, Sam said. He knew how it could be when a relationship hit a low. Sometimes you had to be patient and overcome it and sometimes… well.

“Do you want to –”

“No, stop looking at me like that! I shouldn’t have said anything. We will be fine. Come on, let’s go!”

Blaine gestured to the ladder that hung from the tree.

When they arrived at the first story Summerwhine stood next to a large, lean woman with hair as golden as the light that surrounded the house. She wore a strict expression, though, and lifted one eyebrow as Sam and Blaine arrived.

“That’s them? They look poorly. Look at their clothes. And short hair, like servants. They can’t safe us.”

“Uhm, if Daddy says they can they will”, Summerwhine said. The princess shot him a nasty look.

“I’m going to bed. Tomorrow we’ll see if they are useful or not”, she said. Two maidens ran after her as she entered the house through a wooden curtain.

“Pfff I’m _so_ not envying the prince who has to marry her. He may be living in Under-Earth but he hasn’t seen true suffering until he has lived with Sherenade-Ukelele!”

“Still don’t know why you need us to make that happen”, Sam said.

“What, didn’t Daddy tell you? Oh, that’s so typical. He likes to be all mysterious and stuff. Anyway, it’s –”

“Summerwhiiiiiiine!”

“Oh. Excuse me. I’ll tell you tomorrow. The maids will show you your rooms.”

He snapped and out of nowhere two young girls with dreadlocks appeared.

-

Since there was no reason as to why those people had dropped him and Blaine in a hammock outside in the cold when there was a warm tree-house close by Sam decided it had been the decision of Gandalf XXX who liked to make things ‘mysterious and stuff’. Yeah.

But Summerwhine didn’t seem too bad. Sam wondered where he had put Rory and Kurt. Maybe even in this house? They wouldn’t be treated too badly. Maybe even like kings and in the end Sam would have to wonder why on earth he had to rescue them.

He was lying on his bed and couldn’t get over the day. How was he supposed to sleep when all of a sudden he was in another dimension or world or whatever? But it also was kind of fun. Rory and he would’ve just gone to some lame restaurant if they hadn’t been kidnapped. See, inter-dimensional adventures could spice up the day! (And make him lose his work but he would deal with that another time.)

The room he was in was completely wooden and the light came from lanterns hanging on the walls. The ‘bathroom’ consisted of two buckets with cold water and an empty one, possibly to pee into it.

Sam washed himself as much as possible and tried to brush his tooth with his fingers. Then he lay on the bed and got out his phone. Of course it didn’t have any WIFI or other connection so he just played Commando until he was tired of shooting people. When he tossed his phone aside he wondered what he should wear for the night.

There was a knock on his door. Sam frowned at it. Now it could’ve been Blaine but it also could’ve been the princess who wanted to tell him how bad-looking he was. Or worse a toxic snake that wanted to bite him.

Sam tiptoed to the door and laid his ear against it. Nothing to be heard through the heavy wood. And no spy eye, oh, how could people live like that?

“Yeah?” he said.

“It’s me, Blaine.”

“Proof it!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Sam, who else would want to visit you?”

“Hey, I’m not that unpopular. Maybe Summerwhine would want to pay me a night visit.” Sam grinned as he opened the door.

“Stop this nonsense”, Blaine said as he came in. He went straight to the bed and let himself fall onto it.

“Make yourself comfortable!” Sam mumbled.

“It’s just… I’m homesick. I miss Kurt. Where is he, what have they done to him?”

“Oh, uhm… Nothing bad, I guess.”

Sam went to the bed again and sat down on the other side, pulling out his phone from where Blaine laid on it. The other men didn’t even react.

“Don’t you miss Rory?” he instead asked.

Sam puckered his lips. Did he? Not really. That was because they didn’t spent so much time together anyway. They didn’t see each other every day. Sometimes not even on the weekends.

In the beginning it had been different, of course. They had met again in college after Sam had forgotten all about the Irish exchange student. It turned out Rory had moved to the States after graduation to start a new life. Sam had already known he could also love boys after some experiments and so hadn’t fought against blossoming feelings.

But well, this had been four years ago and sometimes Sam thought he just stayed with Rory because he liked being in a relationship. New things were exciting, yes, but meeting your long-term boyfriend after a hard day’s work was even better.

“He will be fine. And Kurt, too, believe me”, Sam said. He leaned against the top piece and opened Commando.

“I don’t feel so good in this house and… it’s all so strange.”

“Dude, you’re whining. Autumn-whining though”, Sam said. He shot a passenger and some birds.

“Are you really that cold hearted?”

Sam frowned and looked at Blaine. “I’m just not freaking out. In case you forgot, it’s Summerwhine who kidnapped Kurt and Rory. Do you really think he would do them any harm?”

Blaine shrugged and closed his eyes. Sam went back to his game until he had enough again. He put his phone onto the bedside table and laid down completely on the bed, his eyes all of a sudden heavy as lead.

When he opened his eyes again he felt drowsy. He must have fallen asleep. Blaine was, too. He was laying on the bed now, mouth open and snoring very lightly.

Sam lifted his head. The room hadn’t changed, they still were here. Even the lanterns still burnt.

Sam got up to pee into the empty container. Then he got out of his jeans, blew out the lanterns and climbed under the bed cover. Very shortly he considered waking Blaine to send him to his own room and stop occupying half of the space on the bed. But that would have required energy that Sam wasn’t willing to give. He pulled the blanket over his head and closed his eyes.

 


	2. Chapter 2

When Sam woke up the sun was shining in his eyes. His arm was pressing against a warm body and Sam rolled over to hide his face in the other’s neck. He fell back asleep for a few seconds, then a strange scent forced his attention back to reality.

This wasn’t Rory. And he wasn’t home.

Sam lay on his back again and kept his eyes open. The ceiling was wooden and confirmed that he was still… well, in Over-Earth.

“Oh God.” Blaine was awake. He turned until he lay on his back, too, and blinked several times. His hair was all messed up and curly and he was lying under the blanket.

“Sam, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to impose.”

Sam shrugged. Maybe he had been glad not to have spent the night alone in this strange and possibly dangerous place… maybe.

“It’s just… when I woke in the night I didn’t dare to leave the room and…”

“Dude, it’s okay. It’s not like you pushed me out of bed.”

“No.” Blaine took a deep breath. “Guess we should get up and… face whatever will come.”

“Yeah… probably”, Sam said. And stayed where he was, as did Blaine.

“I hope we find Kurt and Rory today”, Blaine said.

“Me too. And apart from that… where can we shower? Or get new clothes?”

“People on adventures wear the same closes for weeks”, Blaine said. “You oughta know, you’ve seen the movies.”

Sam chuckled for no specific reason and it was relieving as hell. He put his hands to his face and moved on to laughing, remembering the silly name of Summerwhine (couldn’t he at least have chosen ‘Summerbreeze’?) and got a bit overboard with it.

Eventually he got up. Blaine left, and Sam went to the ‘bathroom’ where he splashed his whole body with the cold water and dried it with a harsh wool towel. Then he put on the clothes he had slept in and went to a big room that looked like a lounge. A table stood in the middle and there was food on it.

Summerwhine waved Sam so he sat down next to him.

“Do you always life in the tree-house or is this just to seem more elf-like to new visitors?” he asked as he griped a bagel. Over-Earth or not, the food seemed to be the same.

“Today we will go on our quest to Under-Earth”, Summerwhine said, ignoring his question. “Have you slept well, my friend?”

“I can’t complain but I would’ve slept better if I actually had a pyjama or something.”

“Didn’t the maid give you sleeping clothes?”

“No. She didn’t give me or Blaine anything.”

“Huh. Must’ve been my sister’s wish. Maybe to test your worthiness.”

“Oh my God, is she for real? I’m not even voluntarily here! And by the way, what have you done to our boyfriends?”

Summerwhine looked confused, then he smacked his forehead.

“I knew I forgot something! Ashes and Bones! Would you please excuse me!”

He jumped up and ran away, just when Blaine came to the table. He frowned after Summerwhine but before anything could be said princess Sherenade-Ukelele stood up and clapped her hands.

“We’ll be leaving in two time-units! Get ready, especially you, chosen ones!”

“Two time-units?” Sam asked. Blaine took a few bagels and looked around.

“I’m taking some with me. Who knows when we will get food again.”

“Good thinking! Me, too!” Sam took the whole basket with bagels. Blaine grasped another one and they also took cheese and grapes. No one even looked at them.

Eventually a maid came to them and gave them a cotton bag with stuff in it. Two identical sleeping outfits (white linen), two tooth brushes and a bag with hygienic articles.

“Well, better than nothing!” Sam said.

Everybody around them was hurrying and talking. It felt like they were two children who were constantly overlooked. Not that Sam minded.

When he was ready stuffing the bag with all the food he could grip he shouldered it, turned to Blaine and noticed his scared expression. His hair was messed up due to lack of gel, and his eyes switched throughout the room.

“Hey”, Sam said. He put a hand on Blaine’s shoulder. “We’re gonna get through this!”

He better didn’t mention that he just had reminded Summerwhine of kidnapping Kurt and Rory.

When Blaine still didn’t look convinced of a happy ending Sam simply hugged him. He hadn’t hugged Blaine in a while. They had been close in senior year and some time after but life had eventually come between them. Not in a dramatic kind of way; they had stayed in contact. Just not as much as they used to. This wasn’t a good time to be melancholic but suddenly Sam felt a strong urge to make it all right. For Blaine and for them. And they should do more together back again in New York.

“Don’t be afraid”, he whispered against Blaine’s neck. “I’m gonna protect you.”

A shiver went through Blaine’s body and he relaxed in Sam’s arms.

“You will?”

“Yeah.” Sam closed his eyes and let go for a moment. What did it matter where he was, at least he wasn’t alone.

“I’m back, I’m back! Did Sherenade-Ukelele already say when we start?” Summerwhine said.

Sam sighed, leaned back and turned his head.

“That was fast.”

“What can I say, I’m a hyperfast kidnapper! Let’s go, let’s go!” He ran out again and Sam stepped back completely from Blaine.

“Who did he kidnap now?”

“Oh… who knows. Better go down, too!”

Sam went outside and inhaled the fresh morning air. Everything around him was green and the sun shone through rustling leaves. Down on the ground were standing some horses, real horses! How great!

-

One hour later Sam wasn’t as enthusiastic anymore. Riding wasn’t as much fun as he had thought. The saddle was hard under him and the horse didn’t really obey him, it just did whatever the other horses did. No matter if Sam was ready to trot or not when the others did it his horse went with it.

And no one had told him were they were going. Princess Sherenade-Ukelele was dressed in a full-on warrior outfit, her blonde hair plaited. She looked pretty hot in it, well, until she opened her mouth. She and her brother were more alike in the category ‘being hot until one knows their personality’ than they both would’ve admitted.

First at least the scenery had been a good distraction when the saddle had started to get uncomfortable. They had ridden through a forest with all kinds of flowers. But now they were on a plain with a lot of rocks and dry grass and Sam found himself staring at the ass of the horse in front of him, imagining it was the screen of his phone and he was playing Commando with it. Just no matter how often he shot a deadly look at it, it wouldn’t fall down with its blood all spattering around. Huh… weird.

From time to time he saw little green goblins peeking out from behind rock like the one that had visited him yesterday in the café.

“Are we on a spooky island?” he asked Summerwhine because Gandalf XXX had mentioned something like that.

“Yes, we are! Only goblins lived here when we, the surviving Elders, came here. Well, they still live here and scare the shit out of us, that’s why we have to sleep on trees…”

“Oh, that explains… nothing”, Blaine said.

“And the goblins know about fate?”

Summerwhine frowned. “Who _doesn’t_ know about Fate? She pulls all strings.”

“Oh, yeah. She.” Sam bit his lip. “I’m asking because yesterday a goblin came and kind of led your father to me.”

“Goblins know a lot, that’s true. But they don’t share their knowledge without agenda. Mostly you have to trick them. Yesterday for example my father said something about how the chosen one had to be a specialist in whatever he was doing down there in Middle-Earth and so a curious goblin jumped up and ran directly to you. Genius, right?”

“Great, and I’m just here per coincidence”, Blaine mumbled.

“I believe in a lot of things but coincidence ain’t one of them”, Summerwhine said. “It was Fate, I bet you. I mean… who else?”

“And how do we go to Under-Earth? And why do you need us to –”

Sam was interrupted by three goblins that sprang right between the legs of their horses. Of course they didn’t get trampled on (fucking goblins) but the horses shied and ran into different directions. Sam got lucky because his horse simply went after the big group of side running horses. But some of the elves (Sam just called them that now) around him fell to the ground. And when he looked over his shoulder he saw that Blaine’s horse had turned into a completely different direction and already was far gone.

Sam didn’t know how he did it. Maybe it was the shock that made his movements stronger and more convincing when he pulled the bridles around and clapped spurs to his horse. It turned around immediately and after Sam’s third push it started to gallop after Blaine.

He focused on getting nearer and nearer. Another shock rushed through his body when Blaine’s horse entered a forest and he couldn’t see it until he came under the trees, too. His pace didn’t slow down as his horse avoided one tree after another and Sam had to narrow his eyes to see the brown horse in front of him and concentrate on guiding his own horse after it.

Only when they came to a clearing did he catch it. Thanks to another goblin, that is. Sam only saw a green man fleeing into the woods but Blaine’s horse frightened again and reared.

Sam pulled the bridle of his horse and leaned over to grab for Blaine’s bridles. And his horse stopped, alright. Just Blaine’s horse didn’t and went a few more steps and since Sam refused to let it go he got pulled from his horse. His free hand grasped for something to hold on while his feet struggled to keep contact with the ground.

Eventually the horse stopped with a complaining snort. Sam’s left hand clasped to the bridles and his right hand clinched to Blaine’s that had caught it. He pressed his face against the warm and wet brown fur of the horse, cursing it for everything.

“You little shit, why couldn’t you… just…” Sam gasped and looked up into Blaine’s pale face. His eyes were closed and his lips pressed together strongly. Sam needed a few more moments to catch his breath and calm down his racing heart. Then he tugged on Blaine’s hand.

“Come down. Come.”

He carefully loosened his fingers from the bridle and buried them into Blaine’s knee. Eventually the black haired man came to life, swung his other leg over the horse and glided down. Only when he was on steady ground and clung to Sam did he start to sob. And Sam held on just as strong, stroked over his back and mumbled “It’s okay now” over and over again.

It took many minutes until Sam could pay attention to the environment. The two horses were grazing close by like nothing had happened. The clearing they were on was full of sun light but where the trees begun again it was as dark as the night.

“Thank you, Sam, I… I thought… I just was so afraid.” Blaine exhaled and hid his face in Sam’s shoulder, his hands nervously running up and down his waist. Sam took one into his own hand and held them between them, thumb gently caressing Blaine’s skin.

The other man finally started to calm down, too. He lifted his head and looked around, and at the sight of the horses his expression darkened.

“We gotta need to go back to the others”, Sam said.

“Can we walk?”

“That would take pretty long.”

Blaine nodded and took a step back. Sam held on to his hand, though, and waited until Blaine returned his look.

“Let’s both ride back on my horse”, Sam said. “It’s calmer.”

“Okay”, Blaine said after a short hesitation. He nodded again and drove his hand through his hair.

Sam gave Blaine the bag he had had on his back all the time, went to Blaine’s horse and took the bridles. He loosely tied it around the saddle of his own horse and got up. He didn’t want to stay longer than necessary in this forest, away from the elves. No matter what they wanted with them, at least they provided some kind of safety.

Blaine stepped to the horse and stroked over its nostrils.

“You’re a good horse, aren’t you?”

“It is”, Sam confirmed. He looked behind him and wondered whether the saddle was big enough for the two of them. But what else could they do if they didn’t want to ride bareback. So he stretched out his hand to Blaine.

The black haired man threw a last look at the horse and inhaled deeply before he took Sam’s hand and climbed up.

To find the way out was harder than expected. The forest was dark and there were no exit signs. Sam didn’t recognize anything from his way into the forest. He leaned forwards to tell his horse to find his friends and just hoped it was depended enough on them that it instinctively would find them.

“Please no more goblins, please”, Blaine mumbled.

“What do I have to hear? No goblins? No goblins? No humans, I say!” a voice said. Sam’s fingers clinched around the bridles and Blaine’s grip around his waist tightened.

“Who’s there?” Sam called.

“A goblin! Booh!”

One of those creatures let himself fall on the ground before them. Sam stopped his horse and frowned at the goblin.

“Aren’t you the one who stole coffee yesterday?”

“I am the one who tasted your coffee, yes. It was awful, pfui pfui!”

“You owe me five dollars and – wait, I don’t work there anymore, so who cares. Can you please get out of our way now?”

The goblin crossed his arms.

“How do you know you’re on your way out and not deeper into the woods?”

“He has a point, Sam”, Blaine mumbled.

Sam bit his lip. He didn’t like to admit it but the gobbling indeed had a little point. But Sam knew those creatures. As soon as he gave in to them they would try to steal all of your gold.

“Nah, I know it. My instincts have magically improved since I’m in Over-Earth”, Sam answered.

“Oh, is that why you almost rode over me when I sprung from the tree?”

“Damn, okay, I don’t know! But we will find our way out without your help.”

“Sam, please, let reason speak! We will die”, Blaine said.

“We will not die, come on. Our adventure just started.”

“Saaaaam!” Blaine grouched and pressed his fingers into Sam’s side so hard it hurts.

“Ouch! This is what I get for saving you?”

“You’re not done with the saving”, Blaine said. “Please help us, funny little goblin.”

“That’s what I’m here for!” The goblin jumped up and down and clapped his hands.

Sam rolled his eyes. “What’s the price you demand?”

“Not too much. Just the one thing your heart desires most.”

“My heart or his heart? I mean Blaine actually asked you”, Sam said. The fingers on his side clenched again.

“What? You did!” he said.

“How about the half of each of our hearts”, Blaine offered.

“Oh holy Fate, you humans always have to bargain, don’t you? I only take whole heart desires. I don’t care of whom, and I won’t take it immediately. Much like Rumpelstiltskin I will come to take it when you already have forgotten about me.”

“What do we do now? Our both hearts desires are other people. We can’t give them away”, Blaine said.

Sam bit his lip again. He doubted the thing his heart desired most was Rory. No, he knew it wasn’t. Hey, he had just lost his job in a city where rent was pretty high and he desperately needed a new job. Preferably in the field he had actually studied to work in. This is what he wanted the most.

But he couldn’t sacrifice this! He would have to live on the street!

“I… Well.” Sam cleared his throat. He also couldn’t let Blaine do this since the goblin would take Kurt then. An actual human being. That counted more than his flat.

“I will give you my heart’s desire”, he said to the goblin. The green creature grinned.

“Good, very good! Follow me!”

He started to walk to the left and Sam made his horse follow him.

“Why did you do it?” Blaine said. “It’s – we can’t – it’s not –”

“Calm down. He won’t take Rory.”

“He – will not? But I thought you were happy with him?”

“I am.” More or less. “I just need a job right now. I got fired yesterday.”

“Uff! Good! I mean not good but… thank you.”

“I hope that doesn’t mean I will never get a job again in my whole life.”

“Sam, don’t worry. You have friends that can support you. You can life with Kurt and me, he will be very grateful, too.”

“Yeah”, Sam mumbled. They fell silent while they followed the goblin and soon they saw light between the dark trees. Five minutes later they stood outside the forest, their elf-friends and horses coming directly towards them while the goblin wasn’t to be seen anymore.

“My friends! Oh how we were worried!” Summerwhine called out. He put his hands to his chest and closed his eyes.

“They are still alive, let’s move!” the princess said. “We’re losing daylight.”

She turned away but then stopped and narrowed her eyes at Blaine.

“Why aren’t you on your horse? Is it limping?”

“No, he’s mean.”

Sherenade-Ukelele puckered her mouth. “A coward we have. Change horses with him, Summerwhine, quick!”

Summerwhine jumped from his horse and led it to Sam’s. He took the bridles of the horse that had been walking with them and offered Blaine his horse.

For the rest of the day they were just riding. Sam worried about never getting a job until he stopped thinking about that and wondered how big this fucking island was. From time to time the surroundings changed and they were riding past hills or trees. They often saw goblins lurking around but none of them scared their horses anymore. Well, except the one time Summerwhine fell from his horse but according to Sherenade-Ukelele this happened regularly and the goblins shouldn’t be blamed for it.

When the sun began to set they came to a harbour. A big, somewhat messy looking ship lay lonely on the docks, and many goblins were climbing on it. Summerwhine started to scream and rode in circles to make them flee. When most of them were gone he invited his friends to board the ship.

So they led the horses below deck where stables were (Sam knew it had been designed to be like Noah’s Ark!) and then gathered together in a big but low room. Sam almost touched the ceiling with his head and many elves had to walk buckled.

“Why did he make it so small when he’s tall himself?” Sam mumbled as they went to the long table in the middle.

“What do you mean?” Blaine asked. Of course he didn’t have any troubles with the height.

“My friends and family!” Summerwhine started as he sat down at the head of the table. “We are now sea people. Sea Elders. Well, and sea chosen ones, you know.”

He gestured to Sam and Blaine but didn’t look at them as he spoke on.

“Other than the great stories about pirates searching for treasures we only travel to reach the gates of Under-Earth where my *cough* beloved sister will marry the prince and then unfortunately has to stay there.”

“I will not stay in Under-Earth!” Sherenade-Ukelele said. She hit the table so it ruffled. “I will take the prince back to Over-Earth.”

Sam held up his hand. Now was the time to get questions answered.

“Yes, sea chosen one?” Summerwhine said.

“How does this marriage safe the whole world?” Sam asked.

“Not the whole world. Just Middle-Earth, your unimportant home”, Sherenade-Ukelele said.

“Oh, yeah, well, how?”

“Prince Armageddon-Apocalypse is bored otherwise”, Summerwhine said. “He has threatened to destroy parts of the world ever since. But he’s serious this time, he already built an army.”

“An army?” Sam asked.

“Yes, an army!”

“Then you need a Hulk!”

“What are you talking about, sea chosen one? Anyway, he sent us the message that he wants to marry the fair maiden of Over-Earth. Most of us think he means princess Sherenade-Ukelele by that so…”

“Of course he does!” Sherenade-Ukelele said. “And I want to marry him, too. He’s the only prince left in all the worlds. It is meant to be.”

“Then why do you need us to make that happen?”

“What have you done to Kurt and Rory?” Blaine asked at the same time.

“Don’t get too curious! Folks, we need to claw off the shore now!” Sherenade-Ukelele clapped her hands and most of the elves jumped up and ran outside. She followed them, shouting orders.

“What if they want to sacrifice us to their Gods or something like that?” Blaine whispered.

“That _is_ possible! I mean just think about Fate, their mysterious main God. Maybe she wants to eat us”, Sam said.

“Sam, you are supposed to say everything will be fine! And by the way Gods don’t send texts.”

“They do in Over-earth!”

“Come, sea chosen ones. I will show you your chambers.” Suddenly Summerwhine was standing behind them.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Chamber, my ass. More like a broom closet. The bed was three feet away from the door, the cupboard in front of it couldn’t be opened completely and the bathroom again consisted of two containers, one empty and one full of dirty water. Sam surely wouldn’t wash himself with that!

The smell some salt sediments on the wall (at least he hope it was salt) radiated and the slow but steady rocking of the ship didn’t make his room more comfortable, too. At least he had had something to eat even if it had been fish.

Well. Time to sit on the bed and play Commando. At least his phone battery hadn’t died yet.

“Sam, can I come in?”

Sam watched his door. It was wooden (what else) and left ajar. One of Blaine’s eyes peeked into the room.

“Dude! What if I had been naked?”

Blaine opened the door and came in.

“Then you wouldn’t have left the door open, I hope.”

“Well, maybe I –”

“Don’t say you’re awaiting Summerwhine for the night. Just don’t.”

Blaine sat down on the side of the bed and put the bag they had gotten this morning on it while Sam pulled a grimace.

“I wasn’t going to.”

“Yes, you were. Okay, here’s your pyjama, towel and your tooth brush. We’re gonna have to share the soap and…” Blaine eyed something in a can that looked like wet sand. “…this.”

“Maybe it’s tooth paste!” Sam said. He sat up and put his finger into it. Nope, it actually was wet sand.

“A body peeling?” Blaine suggested.

Sam took the can and put it to his nose. Luckily it didn’t smell like anything. He shrugged and gave it back to Blaine.

“Well, my water isn’t fit for cleaning someone. Is yours?” Sam asked.

“I just have two empty buckets in my room.”

“Oh. Do you think we should ask someone about it or…?”

“What can they do, we’re on the sea now”, Blaine said.

“Yeah.” Sam leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “So crazy this whole stuff.”

“At least there are no goblins on this ship”, Blaine said.

A knock came from the porthole. Sam looked confused at it and then at the door. But another knock came from the porthole.

“Uhm.” He exchanged a look with Blaine before he got up and opened the porthole.

“So I can’t stay long”, the mermaid clinging to the ship said. “But you may want to take a look at this.”

She handed him a silver box with sea weed all over it.

“What is it?”

“It’s an anklet that conjures fire. You want it? Only three golden coins!”

“Three – wait, isn’t this supposed to be a generous gift from friendly souls helping the chosen ones on their quest?”

“Oh, you are a chosen one? Let me see… I have just the right item for you. Here!” The mermaid rumbled through a green bag that hung around her shoulder and pulled out a tiara. She looked at it, shook her head and rummaged through the bag again.

“What is going on?” Blaine’s voice asked.

Sam pulled his head out of the porthole and turned around.

“A mermaid wants to sell us stuff”, he said, gesturing behind him.

“What? We don’t even have money!” Blaine said.

“I know! But she says she has things the average chosen one needs.”

Blaine frowned. He gently pushed Sam away and stepped to the porthole to look out. Sam tried to catch a glimpse outside too but somehow Blaine’s out-of-control curls blocked the view.

“We don’t have money, go away!” Blaine shouted.

“No, wait, wait!” Sam pulled Blaine back and was relieved to see the mermaid was still there.

“We can pay you with favours or something like that! That’s how it works here, right?”

“No. I will need golden coins, dumbass. I’m a mermaid that lives under the sea, there literally are no favours you could do me.”

“Okay but how about a magic ringlet?”

“Hmm… okay. One ringlet of our greasy hair is worth this shield.”

She pulled out a shield as big as Sam’s hand. It was rusty and looked like a child made it.

He frowned.

“What does it?”

“It protects you from very small swords.”

“What would be two ringlets of different colours?”

“Sam, I will not cut my hair!” Blaine said behind him.

Sam turned around. “We need something that will save us in the end!”

“Who says we’re in danger?”

“We’re going to Under-Earth to find a dark prince.” Sam lifted his eyebrows. Finally Blaine nodded. He took out a knife and cut a ringlet from his hair. When Sam’s fingers closed around the black curl Blaine gave him, Blaine was already pulling on his beautiful blond hair. Oh God, what had he done!?

“Alright”, Blaine said. Sam opened his eyes and received a small strand of fair hair. Hoping he would get something magical he went back to the mermaid and handed her the ringlets.

“Thank you!” she said. In return she gave Sam a brown, wet moccasin and sprang into the sea.

“Wait! What does it?” Sam called after her.

“It summons Triton!” she cried before the waves swallowed her.

Damn. Sam closed the porthole and glared at the thing. A shoe that summoned a sea God? How would that be useful?

“Biggest shit ever!” He threw the moccasin into a corner and lay down on the bed, face hidden in the mattress.

“We should have taken the anklet that conjures fire”, he mumbled against it.

“Sam, maybe we won’t need any magical item”, Blaine said.

“Are you even listening to yourself?”

Blaine sighed. He sat down on the bed again and Sam turned his face to him.

“I’m not freaking out. I just wonder when we will get home”, Sam said.

“Or what they did to Kurt and Rory”, Blaine nodded.

“Blaine, I… Look, I might have reminded Summerwhine of kidnapping them.”

Sam rolled around and sat up. Blaine frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“I asked what he had done to them and he jumped up, saying something about he still needed to get them.”

“Oh.” Blaine stared into space. “It’s not your fault.”

“Still, I’m sorry.”

Blaine nodded. Then a tear rolled down his cheek. He wiped it away and got up.

“I’m going to bed now and hope when I wake up everything was just a bad dream.”

“Wait! Don’t cry because of me!” Sam got up, too and grasped Blaine’s arm before he could leave the room.

“It’s not because of you, it’s because of everything. My nerves are just… on the edge.”

“Going to bed like that won’t make it better. You need to release the tension. We could play a game or… summon Triton!?” Sam tried to smile though his nerves were kind of tensed, too.

At least it worked and Blaine chuckled.

“I guess I could stay up a bit longer”, he said. “I wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyhow.”

Sam ignored his somewhat sore stomach and the on-going rocking beneath his feet and crawled back on the bed. He couldn’t get sea sick, that wasn’t something that chosen ones and heroes did.

“Cool. We can play… uhm.” Sam looked around. They literally had nothing on them. Well, except that moccasin.

“Truth or dare?” Blaine suggested as he sat down opposite to Sam.

“Okay. Without kisses though”, Sam grinned.

“Oh, damn, I was looking forward to that.”

Sam chuckled. “I thought you wouldn’t cheat on Kurt?”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“Oh, oh, blasphemy! Who are you and what have you done to Blaine?”

Blaine laughingly shook his head and threw a pillow at Sam. He dodged it, glad that the mood had been lifted.

“Okay, I go first. Truth”, Sam said. He let Blaine think about a question while he took up the pillow.

“Where do you see yourself in five years?”

Sam frowned. “Seriously, that’s what you make of this unique opportunity to ask me anything?”

Blaine shrugged. “I can’t begin with the juicy stuff.”

“Blaine, we’re under deck in an ark that was built to carry Pokémon cards, in another world without knowing when or if at all we get back home.”

“Alright then. Sam?”

“Yes, Blaine?”

Sam folded his hands and leaned forwards, sure now he would have to answer something about his sex life. That’s what ‘juicy stuff’ meant, right, that’s what you asked your friends when playing this game. Maybe Blaine would ask if he had ever blown Rory or something like that. Oh my God, Sam already felt the blood rushing up to his head.

Then Blaine gulped and kneaded his fingers, looking at them.

“Do you love Rory?”

“I – what?”

Not what Sam had expected. Who cared for emotional stuff? That was even more embarrassing. Did he have to tell the truth now?

He cleared his throat, quickly thinking of different phrasings of how it was complicated and he couldn’t say for sure and he needed more time to know and… But it was all a lie, wasn’t it? A lie he had told himself for years now. What was the point in lying when tomorrow they could be dead?

Sam took a deep breath and wetted his lips.

“No.”

Oh my God. He didn’t. What a bad person was he, staying with Rory all this time when he wasn’t in love with him?

Blaine neither looked judgmental at him nor pitiful. He just nodded.

“That’s what I thought.”

“I did, once. It’s not that I…” Sam didn’t know what to say. He wiped away a tear, wondering when it had escaped his eye.

Blaine leaned over and laid his warm hand on Sam’s.

“It’s okay. Things like that happen.”

“Yeah? You and Kurt…?”

Blaine took back his hand and looked to the side.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Well, then I ask you now.”

“But I choose dare”, Blaine said.

Sam lifted his eyebrows. Why didn’t Blaine just tell him? They trusted each other, didn’t they?

“Well. I dare you to… stand on your hands.”

Lame, he knew. But Blaine chose to do lame things, so what.

Blaine tried and failed but at least it brought some laughter to them. Then Sam tried some stunts himself and it helped him forgot their weird, otherworldly situation. But somehow he didn’t forget the question how Blaine felt about Kurt. He didn’t bring it up again, though. When Blaine said Good Night and went to his room, Sam simply nodded and changed into his night clothes.

To put his mind off of things he switched on Commando. It was Blaine’s choice whether he wanted to talk about it or not. And it wasn’t Sam’s business anyways. They had survived years without talking deep emotional stuff so why start it now. He should better concentrate on not dying in this world. Sam threw the moccasin in the corner a reproachful glance, switched off his phone to save energy and erased the lights. The rocking of the ship and the deep humming of the wind started to fade away.

-

They stayed on sea the whole next day and the day after. Sam watched out for mermaids but he didn’t see one again. He also was tempted to throw the moccasin into the sea and scream ‘screw you Triton’ but he didn’t. Partly because he didn’t want to mess with Gods that most likely really existed and partly because Blaine told him not to.

Whenever he saw Summerwhine he tried to ask him questions about their quest and why he and Blaine were needed for the marriage but Summerwhine seemed busy and never answered anything. He waved around a lot and ran over deck, remembering Sam of Captain Jack Sparrow. So Sherenade-Ukelele became Elisabeth Swan in his mind and he also looked for a Will Turner. But maybe that would be the prince of Under-Earth.

The days were pretty boring. None of the elves would let him help with the canvas or anything regarding the ship. They seemed to think he didn’t know any of it. Well, that was true but he was willing to learn!

So because Sam had nothing to do he often caught himself thinking about Blaine. Or rather Blaine and Kurt. He had mentioned they weren’t as passionate anymore but what did that mean in Blaine-language? Just that they didn’t do it often or didn’t do it at all or also had stopped loving each other?

Oh my God, Kurt and Blaine both were totally not people Sam could picture having sex. They were so innocent and nice and… well, okay, Kurt wasn’t _that_ innocent. But Blaine. He never swore, he was always clean (even here, Sam didn’t know how he managed to be that neat) (apart from his hair) and never made innuendos or dirty jokes. Hell, he even looked away when Summerwhine bend over and presented his butt to them.

Maybe that was the issue. Maybe Blaine didn’t like sex and that was why Kurt and he had problems.

Okay, Sam should probably stop thinking that explicit about his friends’ relationship now.

“Watch out, a griffin!” Summerwhine screamed.

Sam looked into the air and found that the elf wasn’t joking. A griffin approached them.

“Is it friendly or –”

Some elf grasped him and pulled him into the large room they had had the meeting in the first day. They all lay down on the floor, only Summerwhine peeked outside.

“Guess that means no”, Sam sighed. He craned his neck to look for Blaine in the room. But with all people lying on the floor he couldn’t discover his friend.

“Oh”, Summerwhine said. From where Sam was lying he could see the griffin was walking on deck now. It was huge, at least fifteen feet and when it walked its head make forth and back movements like a chicken did.

“Would it eat people or what?” Sam asked.

“Maybe we will find out”, Summerwhine said.

“What do you mean, find out? This is your world, you should know!”

“Should we save him or…?” Summerwhine turned to Sherenade-Ukelele who lay on the ground, looking a bit bored. Now she got up and peeked over the window ledge.

“No. I’m sure this is why Fate decided we need two of them”, she said. “So one can be sacrificed to the griffin.”

Sam got the worst feeling ever. Two of ‘them’. Where was Blaine? All of a sudden Sam’s bones seemed to be filled with ants. Big, fat ants of fear. He jumped up and looked out of the window. On the far away end of the deck poor little Blaine pressed himself against a ship wall, eyes closed and motionless.

Sam was at the door before anyone could stop him and when he was outside, nobody followed him anyhow. He heard Sherenade-Ukelele loudly whisper to Summerwhine to do something but nothing happened.

The griffin had seen neither Sam nor Blaine yet. It walked around, examined masts and made weird snake noises. Sam waited until it was looking into the open door to the deck below and then quickly ran past it, back bowed as low as possible.

Blaine seemed to be in shock. When Sam came to him and touched his arm he randomly lashed out without opening his eyes.

“It’s me! Come on!” Sam hissed.

Blaine opened one eye, then the other.

“When you said you would protect me I didn’t think I’d be in danger every second day”, Blaine said.

“Blaine, even if you were in danger every hour I’d come for you. Now…” Sam nodded to the side but Blaine just stared at him.

“Really?”

Sam frowned and watched the griffin picking against a barrel.

“Three feet away from us is a door, can we talk inside the ship?” he asked. Blaine nodded and finally moved. They slowly slid sideways. Sam’s right hand already touched the lifesaving door when the griffin gave a high cry and jumped right in front of them.

Sam stopped all his movements, even the breathing. The monstrous beak of the bird hovered two inches away from his nose.

Then someone screamed on the other side of the deck and the griffin turned around. It cried, too, but Sam didn’t pay attention anymore. He rushed to the door and into the ship. When Blaine was inside he shut the door and leaned with his back against it, gasping and thanking the heavens that he was alive.

The narrow hallway they were in was lighted by a lantern and the stairs downstairs began two feet after the door. But it was enough for Sam, it seemed like the best place on earth ever.

“Oh God. Oh God”, Blaine panted.

Sam leaned his head against the door and waited for his breathing to calm down.

“I told you this world is dangerous”, he gasped.

“I wonder what they are doing”, Blaine said. Sam turned around to lay his ear against the door but he didn’t hear anything.

Blaine copied the gesture. In the dim light of the lantern Sam realised his friend hadn’t had any hint of a beard although they haven’t been able to shave for a few days now.

“Blaine?”

“Huh?”

“Do you have a rare gen that makes your appearance neat and clean under all circumstances?”

“Are you asking if I’m a mutant?”

“Well?”

“Are you serious? No, I don’t have a rare gen, Sam. At least I don’t think so. I’m a normal human being.”

“But you’re always perfect! And you don’t like sex!”

Oops. Sam but his lip and concentrated on listening whatever happened outside the door.

“What?” Blaine said in a high pitched voice. “I do like – What the hell are thinking about all day long?”

“I’m sorry. I officially apologise and also promise I don’t think about your sex life all the time.”

“I sure hope so”, Blaine snorted.

“But…”

“What?”

“You didn’t tell me what the problem is with Kurt and you.”

“Who said there is a problem? And if there is it’s none of your business!”

“Why not? We’re friends and I told you about Rory.”

Blaine gave an angry snort and then opened the door. Sam’s hand reached into nothing and Blaine was outside before he could say ‘griffins eat people’.

Luckily there wasn’t any griffin to be seen. Elves were hurrying around. Sam approached the centre of fuss and saw that one of them was wounded. He sat and didn’t look like he was dying but blood came out of his ear and streamed all over his cheek.

Sam didn’t know what exactly the trigger was, the blood or just his stomach that had gotten worse every day they had been on the sea. Suddenly the fish from lunch made its way up his throat. Sam rushed to the rail and threw up.

“Oh my Fate, what now?” Sherenade-Ukelele exclaimed somewhere behind him.

“He just proofed to be worthy, don’t judge him!” Summerwhine called.

“Whatever. He better not die.”

“Send for the healer, send for the healer!”

Before Sam knew what was happening they carried him to his chamber and gave him tea that smelled disgusting. He promised to drink it and then threw it out of the porthole. For heaven’s sake, he just was seasick!

Just when he closed the porthole someone knocked at his door.

“Yeah?”

“I forgot – oh my, why aren’t you in bed. Hush, hush!” the healer elf said. He wore his blonde hair in breads and his clothes were somewhat classier than of the others, with all that silk and cords.

Sam went to bed and pulled the blanket to his chin.

“Sir, can you tell me where the crystalline longbow is?”

Sam started at him. Crystalline longbow, what the hell? And why should _he_ know? He started to suspect that there was another Sam Evans in Middle-Earth that they had mistaken him for.

“Uhm… I can’t recall that right now”, Sam said. “You know… my head and everything.”

“One hint would be very nice.”

Sam didn’t know what to do. The elf didn’t look as friendly anymore. Why couldn’t he just go away?

“You see, I need this bow”, he said, stepping closer to the bed. Instinctively Sam sat up, ready to jump.

“I really don’t know anything”, he said.

“Oh, for Fate’s sake! You are the chosen one, you know everything!”

Suddenly the elf had a small dagger in his hands. It glistered dangerously in the sunlight that fell through the porthole. Sam jumped out of bed, his hands stretched out.

“Look, Mister, I swear…”

“Get out.”

Both Sam and the elf looked in surprise at the door. Holding a cutlass much too big for his body, Blaine stared the elf to the ground and even frightened Sam.

He was dreaming, wasn’t he?

“I said _get out_ ”, Blaine repeated. He slowly came in and walked past the elf, standing between him and Sam.

The elf’s face was openly hostile now. He narrowed his eyes at Blaine and Sam before he retreated. As soon as he was out of the room Blaine rushed to the door and locked the bar.

“We are not safe here, Sam, I just overheard them talking… Did you drink the tea?”

Sam still couldn’t move, his legs refused to. How come he had to be saved now? He was the safer, okay, not the other way round!

Blaine laid the cutlass onto the bed and came to Sam, putting his hands on his shoulders.

“Did you drink the tea?”

“You saved me”, Sam mumbled.

“Did you?”

“You are small but strong.”

“ _Did you drink the fucking tea_?”

Sam was pulled out of his trance. He watched Blaine’s furious face and his wild curls and shook his head.

“No. It smelled like sewage. I secretly poured it out of the porthole.”

“Oh, thank God!” Blaine expelled. The next moment his small (but strong) arms were around Sam and the Blonde was being pressed against him. Still surprised Sam returned the hug.

“What is this about? Was it poisoned?”

“From what I heard there was a drug in it that would’ve made you will-less so that you would do anything they asked of you. And they talked about how it would leave you ‘useless’ for the original quest.”

“Who’s they? Summerwhine, too?”

Blaine stepped back and shook his head.

“No, some people who conspired against the royal family. They don’t care about Middle-Earth, they just want a bow or something...?”

“Oh…” Sam sighed and sat down on his bed. Of course they had to come across a conspiracy. Enemies from within. Didn’t sound as exciting anymore when he was personally involved and his life endangered.

“Where did you get that knife?” he asked as Blaine put it to the ground.

“Well, I when I overheard all those things I accidentally flew into the armoury.”

“Of course you did.” Sam nodded. “And now?”

“We have to talk to Summerwhine and Sherenade-Ukelele about it.”

“Or flee.”

“Uhm… we’re on a ship.”

“Oh. Yeah. And we can’t leave the room because the evil elves will be there, right?”

“I don’t think they are elves but… yes. They will try to get to us.”

“So we have to train a pigeon and send Summerwhine a letter!”

Sam opened the porthole and looked to the blue sky. There were no birds, damn.

“Sooner or later one of them will check on us, right?” he said when he turned around. Blaine lay on the bed and stared to the ceiling.

“Sooner or later we will come to a port”, Blaine nodded.

“Okay.” Sam sat down again and grasped his phone. Being trapped in a room gave him time to play Commando, yay!

 


	4. Chapter 4

Two hours later his battery died and Sam threw his phone into a corner. It landed on the brown moccasin and silently but reproachfully glared at Sam.

He ignored it and turned to Blaine.

“I’m hungry.”

“Kurt and I are talking about breaking up.”

“Wh- oh.”

Sam watched Blaine’s hurt face and his glittering eyes as he turned to look at Sam.

“He wants to end it since months already and I always talk him into trying it again. I don’t know what happened to us! We were _the_ dream pair and now we are just making each other miserable!”

“I’m sorry”, Sam said. He never knew what to say when people went all emotional. Well, not that this happened very often. But now Blaine cried and looked like a schoolboy whose candy had been stolen and Sam really wanted to comfort him.

Blaine shook his head. “Do you have a tissue?”

Sam hurried to the ‘bathroom’ and got his unused towel.

“Feel free to snot into it”, he said as he gave it to Blaine. It made the other boy smile a tiny little bit.

Sam hastily searched his brain for any impression that could cheer Blaine up. But he had gotten a bit rusty with that skill, and also maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do now. Just how… what?

Sam looked around in the room. Triton? No, how could a sea God cheer up a heartbroken boy…

And then the best solution ever came to Sam’s mind.

He got up, took the cutlass and gestured to Blaine.

“Give me your hand.”

“What?”

“We will enter the lands of blood brotherhood. I swear I’ll never leave you, no matter what happens or what ground breaking pillars of your life will fall apart. I’ll be there. And you for me. That’s what blood brothers are for.”

“Sam, I…” Blaine shook his head and kneaded his towel. But when he looked up again and met Sam’s eyes he didn’t look as devastated anymore.

“You’d do that?”

“Dude, I already told you I will look out for you no matter what. Not only here, also back home in New York. I can’t protect you from scrambling relationships or any evil everyday occurrences but I can be there for you. I will be. I swear to Captain America.”

Blaine chuckled. He changed his sitting position to get on his knees and stretched out his hand to Sam.

“Go on then, Sam Evans, platonic love of my life.”

“There’s just one thing I can’t do.”

Blaine lifted his eyebrows and Sam shook his head.

“I can’t cut you. Can you…?”

Blaine grinned. “You wimp. How will you fight the bad guys?”

“Bad guys are not you, Blaine. Now.”

Sam pecked his finger against the cutlass until it hurt. But when he pulled away there was no blood. Damn, this was harder than the movies made you believe.

Blaine chuckled again. He lifted himself further up and took Sam’s hand.

“Promise you won’t scream. Or be mad.”

“I promise I won’t be mad.”

“Oh my God, I can’t believe we’re doing this. We’re twenty-four old men making a pact.”

“Just do it already.”

With a lot of pressure Blaine slid Sam’s index finger over the metal. It started to burn and Sam had to bite his lip. But when he removed his hand his finger was bleeding. He resisted the urge to put it into his mouth and waited for Blaine to cut himself.

When he had Sam placed himself opposite to Blaine on the bed. He held up his bleeding finger and kept a serious face as he said:

“Till death do us part.”

“Yes. Till death do us part”, Blaine whispered. His eyes were full of spirit again and that was all Sam had wanted. They pressed their fingers against each other and silently locked their eyes for a few moments.

Then Sam started to worry whether their fingers would grow together. No matter how much he loved Blaine he didn’t want to be Siamese twins with him. So he pulled back, shortly looked at his red finger and then licked it.

“Euuw, Sam, that’s my blood on it as well!” Blaine laughed.

“How do you know that’s not why I wanted this?” Sam grinned and twitched his eyebrows.

“You’re disgusting!” Blaine hit his shoulder and laughed with Sam; laughed and had forgotten all about Kurt.

“I just know I won’t wash my finger in that water over there”, Sam said. “I’d probably get tetanus.”

“Well, that actually sounds sensible”, Blaine said. He watched his finger and held it up. “Since you like it so much…”

“Haha, you wish!” Sam grasped Blaine’s wrist and tried to lead the finger to Blaine’s mouth. He dodged backwards though until they both fell sideways onto the bed.

Sam rolled on his back and sighed. Laughing and joking around felt good but somehow he couldn’t forget the situation they were in. And how should he, after all his life was in danger.

A knock came from the porthole. This time Sam jumped up immediately and opened it. Yes, there was a mermaid clinging to the ship! It wasn’t the same as before but she also wore a bag with stuff.

“I will not ask how mermaids have gotten so poor they need to get jobs. Just give me something useful. I will pay you in ringlets. Also, could you help me to escape from this ship?”

“No. And I don’t accept ringlets. No gold, no stuff.”

Sam sighed. “What happened to friendly magical creatures who give away things for free?”

“Well, what do you _think_ happened to them? They died from hunger and poverty!”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, so what, will you buy something or not?”

“Can we make a deal? I have a great moccasin that summons Triton and I’m willing to exchange it with something that conjures fire.”

“I’m a creature of the sea. I don’t need shoes to summon the Gods of the sea, idiot. Now what?”

Sam pawed the ground. This wasn’t going anywhere, was it?

When a hand touched his back he turned around.

“Let me talk to her, Sam.”

“You can try, you can try. By the way, do you still have some energy on your phone?”

“I will not let you play Commando on it”, Blaine said as he stepped to the porthole. Sam cursed and went into the room to collect their stuff. He was sure Blaine would find a way to talk the mermaid into saving them.

When he was trying to fit the cutlass into the bag, someone knocked on the door.

Sam froze and stared at it.

“Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Summerwhine! Are you better? Can I come in?”

“No, I’m naked!” Sam called. He always wanted to use that excuse to keep someone from entering the room. Using naked excuse: check.

“So get dressed.”

“Uhm… no?” Sam said. Damn, what now?

Blaine closed the porthole and shook his head.

“She’s gone”, he whispered.

”What!?” Sam exclaimed a bit too loud.

“Oh, is someone with you?” Summerwhine said. He knocked lightly and rhythmically against the door.

“Not that it’s my business but you are weak from your illness and need all your strength for your task in Under-Earth”, he continued.

“Yeah, well, this is my cure”, Sam said. He jumped at the bed, up and down. If Rory had been here with him it would’ve sounded exactly like that.

“Summerwhine, is it you?” Blaine said and went to the door. He unlocked the bar and opened the door. Before Sam could restrain him he peeked out.

“Are you decent?” Summerwhine stood there, both hands in front of his eyes.

“What? Of course I am. Come in, quick!”

Blaine pulled the elf in and locked the door again. Summerwhine peeked through his fingers and Sam grinned at him.

“Don’t believe everything people tell you.”

“Summerwhine, you have traitors on your ship. They tried to poison Sam to get information from him and they didn’t care whether he survived afterwards or not!”

“Whaaaaaaaaaat?”

Blaine explicitly told Summerwhine about the happenings while Sam practiced to handle the cutlass. But Summerwhine send him some anxious looks so he stopped this useful action after some time and sat down next to Blaine on the bed. He tried to listen but then his mind wandered to how Summerwhine had thought he and Blaine were doing it. Although he knew they both had other partners! Maybe elves didn’t take monogamy too seriously. And maybe it totally wouldn’t count as cheating on Rory if Sam did something (you know… just a little bit) with Summerwhine since they were in another world…?

“…right, Sam?” Blaine addressed him.

“Huh? Yeah! Right!” Sam held up his hand in expectation of a high-five. But Blaine frowned at him.

“Did you even listen?”

“I totally listened to you.”

Blaine crossed his arms and lifted his eyebrows.

“Well, what did I say?”

“Come on, Blaine, would I lie to you?”

Blaine didn’t react, and Sam sighed.

“Yeah, okay, I didn’t listen. What did you say?”

“I said: We are willing to help the princess to marry only if our security is guaranteed – and our arrival back in our world afterwards.”

“This is so true. So genius of you to think of that.”

Blaine shook his head totally serious but when Summerwhine spoke on Sam detected a very little smile on Blaine’s face and he had to smile himself. Blaine shortly looked to him and nodded, then focused back on Summerwhine.

“Agreed, sea chosen ones?”

Sam looked to Summerwhine and nodded. He should really start to listen to people.

“Yes, sounds good”, Blaine said. He rapidly got up and stretched out his hand to Summerwhine. The elf shook it, bowed and left the room.

“Uhm…”

Blaine turned around from locking the bar and clapped his hands.

“I’m glad he’s so nice.”

“Uhu. Totally.”

Blaine nodded. Sam held his eyes, hoping when communicating it silently Blaine wouldn’t be mad for Sam not having listened again.

But Blaine didn’t even get it. He went to the porthole and got on his tiptoes to look outside.

“So… uhm… What did he say?” Sam asked.

“That we’re going to sacrifice you in order to get me home safely.”

Blaine turned around. Sam looked at him as nicely as he could. Hopefully he even managed to make some puppy eyes.

“You’d do that?”

“He and Sherenade-Ukelele will guard our room personally until we’re on land. I will show him the traitors on pictures that he will take from all people on the ship and he will have them executed when we’re arriving at a harbour.”

Sam nodded, puckered his lip and stared out of the porthole. The sky was grey and getting dark.

“Wait. Did you say our room? As in one room?”

Maybe he had heard it wrong. Or Blaine just hadn’t thought about it.

“Didn’t you listen at all? I thought you agreed when he said it’s easier that way because he and Sherenade-Ukelele will take turns. You looked agreeing at me and I nodded to it...?”

“Uhm. Oh. Okay.”

“If you don’t want to share a room we can tell Summerwhine and ask if he –”

“No, no, it’s cool. I don’t mind. I mean, we’re blood brothers after all.”

Sam lay back on the bed and folded his hands beneath his head. The worst thing was that his phone had died. What was he supposed to do all night until it was time to sleep? _If_ he could sleep with all that traitors on the ship.

Another knock on the door made him look up. Blaine asked who is was and Summerwhine answered. When he came in he brought them a basket full of bread, cheese, fruits and wine.

“I take the first stand”, he said as he put the basket on the ground. “S.U. will be here in two hours and so on. In the morning we will arrive at the harbour. Hopefully everything will be good until then.”

Sam went to the basket and inspected it. Looked like the night wouldn’t be that boring, they had food and drinks! Now if only they had music, too, that would be even greater.

When Summerwhine was gone and Blaine had locked the door again Sam sat on the bed already, buttering his bread. He had never been gladder to have bread in his whole life. The last meal he had had was lunch and that had been fish. Fish! That he had vomited into the sea again.

“Wow, okay, they couldn’t have given us water?” Blaine said as he took the bottle of wine out of the basket.

“Yeah, we probably shouldn’t drink this. It would slow down our reactions and stuff”, Sam said.

“Right.”

“Though we need to drink something with the meal.”

“I guess one sip won’t do any harm”, Blaine said.

“Or maybe the mermaids would take this a liquid gold?”

Blaine frowned. Then he opened the bottle and drank from it.

Sam shook his head.

“How rebellious of you. And on an empty stomach nonetheless.”

“Even I have a wild side, Sam.”

“Uhuh.”

“It’s true.”

“Okay. Whatever. Give me some.”

One hour later Sam was full of both food and wine. The down side was Blaine was, too, and had started whining about Kurt a long time ago. Since Sam hadn’t had more special tricks (blood brothers was as special as he could do) he just lay on the back, eyes closed, and sometimes hummed with agreement. He hoped Blaine wouldn’t realise it when he fell asleep.

But then Sam heard Blaine saying something about sex and opened his eyes. Would he get to know the secrets of Blaine Anderson now?

“What?” he said to make Blaine repeat whatever he had said.

“I know! And that’s just the beginning. Guess what he _doesn’t_ like!”

“Oh… uhm… blowjobs?”

Blaine frowned at Sam. “I just told you that what he wants all the time.”

“No, yeah, I _know_. I meant your blowjobs. Your special technique, you know.”

Blaine’s face turned pretty red and Sam immediately felt bad for being that explicit.

“No, that’s not it. Kissing. He doesn’t like kissing. Who the hell doesn’t like kissing? Everybody likes it!”

Sam turned his face to the ceiling and narrowed his eyes. Blaine was right. Everybody liked kissing. Kurt saying he didn’t sounded like a symptom of a burned out relationship. But he better wouldn’t mention this to Blaine, he was sad enough as things were.

A finger bored into his shoulder.

“Do _you_ like kissing, Sam?”

“Well... yeah. I do. But maybe that’s something… that varies or… you know?”

“Who am I kidding. He just doesn’t want to kiss me anymore”, Blaine sighed. He sat up with a heavy breath and slowly stood, then lurched to the porthole and opened it.

Sam took a deep breath of the salty air that entered the room. Outside it was dark now although it couldn’t be later than eight. Sam had kept up a sense of time by secretly looking at Blaine’s phone. What would he do when its battery died, too? He needed to know the time!

“DAMN YOU KURT!”

Sam sat up in a heartbeat.

“Are you out of your mind?”

Blaine got away from the porthole and giggled.

“I never said that before. Ever.”

“Great for you. Now –”

“Yes? Someone called me?”

Sam tore open his eyes as a pink little fairy with a magic wand flew through the porthole and settled down in Blaine’s bushy hair. Blaine’s eyes rolled up but elsewise he stood still.

Sam approached him, pointing at the fairy.

“Do I get three wishes?”

“I called her!” Blaine exclaimed.

“No, you didn’t. Her name is not Damn-you-Kurt, that was a misunderstanding”, Sam said.

“Yes. My name is Damucurt. Well, the short version of it. The long version is Damucurt-Imfosam-Tisfate.”

“What?”

“Just call me Damucurt.”

“So I get three wishes, yes?” Blaine said, his eyes still rolled upwards.

“Yes.”

“Damn, why do you get the nice fairies and I the mermaids that want to be paid for useless things?” Sam mumbled. He went back to the bed, uninterested and also angry with fate. Or rather Fate. Whoever that was.

That he got an idea and turned to Blaine again.

“Can you wish for an adapter to charge my phone?”

Blaine frowned.

“No. We are on a ship and people want to kill us. And here are not sockets.”

“You can wish for that, too!”

“Sam, shut up now. I need to think.”

Sam opened his mouth but didn’t say anything. Blaine was still drunk, he was allowed to curse and tell people to shut up. At least Sam hoped it was the wine that made Blaine do it because otherwise he would’ve started to change and change was never good.

Blaine closed the porthole and carefully approached the bed. He walked somewhat stiff, probably to not throw the fairy out of his curls.

“That’s ridiculous. Just take her off”, Sam said.

“Shut up”, Blaine mumbled. He sat down and then stayed still.

Sam robbed to the end of the bed to grab the bottle standing on the floor. There were some sips left so he drank them. Then he decided to go to bed at nine. How late was it now? Blaine’s phone lay on the other side of the bed so Sam took it.

A short glance to Blaine told him he didn’t notice anything. Then his phone told Sam that it was seven. Damn. He opened Commando just to look whether Blaine’s version was the same as the one on his own phone. The game started at Level 1 without any points. Apparently Blaine never played it… weird.

Sometime later Blaine said without moving: “Sam, what’s that noise?”

“What noise?”

“Like someone’s playing a shooting game.”

“Huh. Don’t hear anything.”

Sam muted Blaine’s phone and saw that it was half past seven now.

“Have you thought of a wish?”

“Not yet.”

Sam threw a glance over his shoulder. Blaine sat still at the same spot.

“Aren’t you hurting from not moving?”

“It’s okay.”

Sam laid the phone down, got onto his knees and moved behind Blaine to watch his head. There was no fairy anymore, just wild black ringlets.

“She’s gone.”

“Are you sure? Maybe she’s hiding somewhere.”

Sam examined the hair, carefully put some strands aside and stroked over the sides. Blaine quietly sighed at the touch.

“Nope, no fairy.”

Blaine sank down as if someone had deflated him.

“I’m sure she will come back”, Sam said. “You better keep thinking about wishes.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. Totally.”

Sam let himself fall back, quickly ended Commando (after saving his Level, duh) and put the phone back on the pillow.

But Blaine had turned around and frowned. “What were you doing with my phone?”

“Checking the time. It’s only half past seven, what are we going to do until nine?”

“What’s at nine?”

“Bedtime!”

Blaine rolled his eyes and crawled to the pillow. He threw himself on the bed, face down.

“Are you going to sleep already?”

Before Blaine could answer the door ruffled. Sam’s heart raced and he jumped up, looking for the cutlass. But then Sherenade-Ukelele’s voice screamed:

“I’m here now! No one will kill you tonight!”

“Uhm… thank you!” Sam called. He drove a hand through his hair and rolled his eyes to Blaine who had lifted his head.

“I don’t think I will sleep at all”, he said.

Sam nodded. “Maybe we take turns, too. Just in case.”

“Yeah, okay”, Blaine said. With a big sigh he let his head fall on the bed again.

One boring hour later (Blaine hadn’t moved so Sam had burrowed his phone again to keep an eye on the time) Sam started to yawn. The days were long and exhausting so it was totally normal that he was tired at half past eight. He took off his jeans but didn’t dare to change into his night clothes just in case he had to be clothed again quickly. Then he blew out the lanterns except for one and crawled under the blanket. Sherenade-Ukelele was still in front of the door, nothing would happen anyway.

-

Sam awoke because something wasn’t right. The room was dark and quiet. He didn’t dare to say something so he carefully let his hand glide to the right.

There was no one there.

Suddenly his throat was dry and his whole body was alert. He needed light.

Quiet footsteps went through the room. Sam held his breath, trying to remember where the cutlass was. But he could fight with his fists if necessary. Sam’s eyes adjusted to the dark and he could sense a person in the room. Did they take Blaine and were now coming for him?

He clenched his fists under the blanket. When the man bended over the bed Sam didn’t wait until he got chocked, he jumped up and pushed the other at the bed. No knife or metal seemed to be on him, good. Sam somehow managed to tackle his arms with his knees and used his hands to strangle the other man’s throat. He didn’t even think about it or hesitate, his instincts just made him do it.

The man coughed and flounced. One of his hands got free and bored deep into Sam’s stomach. It hurt and for one second Sam loosened his grip on him. Both hands free now the man grasped his shoulders and reversed their position, pressing his knees into Sam’s sides and his torso weighing down on Sam’s chest. Sam tried to push him away but the other didn’t move a bit. One of his hands left Sam’s shoulders and moved to his throat. Shit, he was going to die, he already saw white stars and…

Wait, the man wasn’t strangling him. His fingers were tapping against Sam’s chin. Sam felt his chest moving quickly against his own and hot breath grazing his cheek.

“Why are you trying to kill me?”

Oh God. Sam closed his eyes and all of his muscles relaxed at once. It was Blaine. Fuck, it was Blaine.

“I thought you… Oh my God. Shit!”

Blaine rolled off of him and Sam threw his hands on his face. How stupid was he? Some tears were running over his temples into his hair. He just couldn’t believe what he had intended to do, what he almost had done.

“Sam, it’s okay. Come here.”

Blaine tried to reach him but Sam shook him off. No touching anymore. Ever.

“You didn’t hurt me, Sam.”

“Yes, I did. I chocked you.” Sam wiped over his eyes. Another sob escaped his throat.

“Well, you didn’t know it was me, did you?”

“No! Blaine, if I had known… I thought they had taken you and now it was my turn! Blaine, do would never hurt you! Don’t you know that? Don’t you know… do you really believe…”

Sam’s face distorted from crying and he didn’t even mind the tears. How could Blaine ever think he would do this on purpose, how?

“No, Sam, stop. Of course you wouldn’t. Of course not. I just wanted to make you realise it yourself. You didn’t know. And I’m not mad. Or hurt. It doesn’t hurt.”

Sam calmed down against his will. Blaine sounded sincere. Not dead. And his voice was healthy, not scratchy like people in the movies spoke after having survived strangle attacks.

“Look”, Blaine said. “Can I touch you?”

Sam hesitated, then nodded.

“Give me your hand.”

He did and Blaine guided the hand to his throat. Sam only let his fingertips run carefully over it. There was nothing. But he had squeezed it. Maybe it was red and blue already?

“See. I’m okay”, Blaine whispered. “It was only two seconds if not less.”

Sam took his hand back and nodded.

“How can I ever make it right?”

“Don’t attack me again.”

Despite his tears Sam had to chuckle.

“Okay. I’ll try.”

Sam took a deep breath and wiped his eyes dry. Going back to sleep now seemed impossible. He couldn’t even close his eyes without hearing more footsteps in the night. One time after he had fallen asleep for a few seconds he felt a hand on his throat and his eyes flew open, refusing to close again.

But Blaine was still there. His consistent breathing was comforting to listen to. Sam wished he could touch him. Sleep in Blaine’s embrace or something like that. Maybe that was why he had awoken in the first place, because Blaine hadn’t been there anymore. They only had each other in this world and right now Sam worried that if he didn’t feel Blaine anymore he wouldn’t be able to tell friend from foe again.

“I lose my mind without you”, he whispered in his half sleep.

A few more times he blinked to keep sleep away but eventually he passed out.

 


	5. Chapter 5

On the next day Sam and Blaine were guided off the ship by Summerwhine and Sherenade-Ukelele, the latter swinging two daggers and glaring beastly at everyone who as much as looked at them.

Then Summerwhine pulled out a phone and showed pictures on it to Blaine. Sam glanced at it, wondering where and how he charged it. Somewhere in this world had to be sockets, right?

Sam adjusted the bag he was carrying on his back (with the cutlass in it) and checked the surroundings very carefully. The harbour they had docked on was busy. Booths with fruits and vegetables were standing on one side, every salesmen shouting louder than their neighbour.

“I could be mistaken but are we just leaving the ship and therefor the traitors behind and giving him the opportunity to flee?” he asked Sherenade-Ukelele.

“No, I got this. See?”

She gestured over her shoulder without looking back. Sam did, though, just in time to see a person that looked like her running up the ramp.

“Who… what?”

“Time travel, Middle-Earthling.”

“But can’t the traitors –”

“No, they don’t belong to the race of Elders. Only my family is left with that rare gift.”

“Cool. I hope you will never abuse all that power you got there.”

“I couldn’t without Fate punishing me. Are you done talking?”

“Uhm… I guess.”

They walked past some people.

“No, one more question.”

Sherenade-Ukelele rolled her eyes.

“Where do you charge your phones?”

She didn’t answer and fastened her steps. Eventually they came to a huge tower. It was built of grey stones and looked very come down.

“This is the home of the witchlord”, Summerwhine said. “I hope he is home. I want to get to Under-Earth as quickly as possible.”

“Tell me about it. Once I had to wait three months until he came back”, Sherenade-Ukelele said.

“Three _months_?” Sam exclaimed.

“Hush now, sea – oh, we’re not on the sea anymore. You’re an ordinary chosen one again”, Summerwhine said, sounding disappointed.

“Oh, oh, that’s… horrible. Just horrible”, Sam said.

Blaine grinned before he turned to Sherenade-Ukelele.

“It surely won’t take three months this time, right?”

“Who knows”, she said and knocked against the shabby wooden door.

The longer no one opened the closer Sam came to panic. Yeah, he liked adventures and stuff but he wanted to go home as fast as possible now. Yesterday and the night were still eating him away, not to think of more possible dangers to come. And least but not last he couldn’t even play Commando anymore.

Eventually the door was opened a gap length and an old man looked out.

“What?” he said in a really irritated voice. If Sam had been alone he’d retreated right now.

“Heeeeey, uncle Mekoshrenijegokula!” Summerwhine said, holding up his hands as if expecting a welcome hug.

The man narrowed his eyes.

“Do I know you?”

Summerwhine talked on but Sam was distracted by Damucurt who suddenly throned on Blaine’s head again. She grinned and put one finger to her lips to tell him not to say anything. Well, Sam didn’t say anything, alright, but he kept staring at her. After a few moments Blaine turned to him with a questioning look.

“What?” he said. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No, uhm…” Sam tried to look into Blaine’s eyes but the fairy just occupied his attention.

“Oh! Is she…?”

Blaine felt over his hair and the fairy pulled a grimace.

“Hands off! Did you think of a wish?”

“Yes. Please let the old man be nice and give us whatever we need from him”, Blaine said.

“What, Mekoshrenijegokula and being nice? Hahahaha that’s a good one! You funny little shit!”

“That is my wish!” Blaine said, raising his head like a king. Sam raised both his thumbs and Blaine smiled proudly.

“I can’t do character alterations. I also can’t do make someone fall in love with you or necromancy haven’t you seen Disney’s Aladdin? General knowledge!”

“Well, what _can_ you do?”

“Opening the Gates for you if Mekoshrenijegokula won’t do it, for example.”

“But he will do it! Talk about wasting wishes”, Sam said. The fairy pulled a grimace and vanished into thin air.

“That felt windy. Is she gone?” Blaine scanned his head.

“Come in, chosen ones!” Summerwhine called. He waved them in, and inside Sam wondered where the mysterious gates should be. Here wasn’t enough space for a big Sheppard much less for gates to another dimension.

“Ah! What are the boys doing here!?”

“They are the chosen ones”, Sherenade-Ukelele said while inspecting a sliding rule.

“They are just kids!”

“Who cares. Let’s go!” She put the rule down and clapped her hands.

“Ah! Who let you in?”

Sam sighed. “He’s dement, isn’t he?”

“It’s not that bad”, Summerwhine said.

“Who _are_ you?” Mekoshrenijegokula asked Sherenade-Ukelele.

Sam and Blaine looked at Summerwhine who raised his shoulders and smiled.

“Let’s go”, Sherenade-Ukelele said. She grasped Summerwhine’s arm and dragged him to the stairs.

Sam went up the spiral staircase too, standing in a round room when he arrived at the end. It was dark except for the light square windows on the high of the wall end let in. In the middle of the room – and almost filling it – stood something that looked a lot like the Tardis in green.

“Oh! This is how you time travel?” Sam said. Wow, cool! Who would’ve guessed the Tardis was real? But in Over-earth everything was possible!

“What? No, this is the only secret gateway left to Under-earth”, Summerwhine said. “We don’t need no device for time travelling.”

“LET’S GO!” Sherenade-Ukelele said very loudly. She opened the door and pushed Summerwhine inside. Sam was allowed to walk himself in. It was pretty dark. In fact he didn’t see anything. He turned around just when Sherenade-Ukelele closed the door from the inside and locked out the last light.

“Blaine?”

“Yes, I’m here. And I’m not an assassin.”

“Haha!”

“Too soon?”

“Don’t stay back!” Summerwhine called. “We need to walk, not talk!”

“Well, that’s a bit hard without light!” Sam called back.

“Oh my Fate, the Middle-Earthlings can’t even see in darkness”, Sherenade-Ukelele groaned.

After a few seconds a small blue light appeared. Summerwhine’s phone. It was pressed into Sam’s hand and Sam froze.

Did Summerwhine have Commando on his phone?

“Just press any button when the light goes out”, Summerwhine said.

“Thank you”, Blaine said. He squeezed Sam’s arm and Sam looked up.

“What? Oh, yeah. Thank you.”

Summerwhine and Sherenade-Ukelele went on and soon vanished out of the blue aura that surrounded Sam. He couldn’t detect walls or anything but who cared. He had a functioning phone in his hand.

“Sam? Can we go?”

“I could write Fate and ask her about, well, my fate”, Sam mumbled.

“You can’t do anything if we get lost.”

“Dude, I have a God phone in my hands!”

Blaine sighed. He tried to take the phone but hell no, Sam wouldn’t let this one go.

“You have a working phone! Don’t!”

“Then let’s go, okay?!”

Huh, Blaine sounded somewhat impatient. But no problem, Sam could walk _and_ at the same time text or play, what advantage would being a ‘Middle-Earthling’ give you if not this?

“You are being ridiculous”, Blaine said after several silent minutes in that Sam had gone through Summerwhine’s out-going text messages. They consisted of _‘No daddy I’m not insane ask S.U.’_ followed by _‘no wait don’t ask her ok bye’_ and _‘I CALL HER WHAT I WANT S.U. IS NOT TOO SHORT FUCK LONG NAMES’_

“Why? He _gave_ it to me.”

“We are on an important mission and you… you… well, what _are_ you doing?”

When Blaine leaned against him to look at the screen Sam smiled.

“See, you’re curious, too. Don’t pretend to stand above it.”

Blaine hooked his arm with Sam’s but didn’t answer. Sam threw look at the boy at his side, not sure what he was supposed to say. But Blaine looked at the phone so Sam decided he didn’t need to say anything.

“Well, he clearly doesn’t like long names”, Blaine chuckled.

“No.” Sam pressed the exit button and opened the menu. Game folder… ah, there.

“You’re not”, Blaine stated unbelievingly.

“What? Who knows how long the walk will be!”

Blaine sighed and let go of him, making Sam bit his lower lip. What was wrong with playing a little game?

He tried to play Commando (well it _was_ on every phone, even elves-phones) but couldn’t concentrate on it. Stupid Blaine, it was clearly his fault. So Sam put it off and just lightened their way.

After seven minutes and forty-two seconds they met with Summerwhine and Sherenade-Ukelele who were standing on front of a door which ornaments looked pale in the blue screen light.

“Finally”, Sherenade-Ukelele said. She pressed down the handle and opened the door. Instead of going through it Summerwhine held out his hand. Sam gave him his phone back, not even disappointed with losing the possibility of playing Commando. For some reason he didn’t like it anymore.

When he stepped outside cold hit him. Not lightly but very, very hard. It clenched like a huge fist around his whole body and Sam could literally feel his blood freeze. No wonder, because everything here was white. He stood on snow and around them were pine trees all covered in white.

It had been a warm autumn at home so he only wore jeans, a shirt and a light jumper along with sneakers. Wrong choice for a place like this.

Sam threw his arms around himself.

“Wow, it’s freezing!” Blaine said.

“I thought hell was all fire and everything”, Sam said.

Summerwhine stopped and turned around while Sherenade-Ukelele simply went on.

“Hel is gone like a million years or so”, Summerwhine said. “Boy, you really live in the past, don’t you?”

“How can it be gone when where here now?”

Summerwhine frowned.

“Yes, we’re here, Hel isn’t. I don’t know where she is but rumours say she’s in Detroit.”

“Humans call Under-Earth ‘hell’ named after Her Highness. You should know, Summerwhine, with your obsession about all things Middle-Earthy”, a foreign voice said. They turned around, even Sherenade-Ukelele.

“And they think it burns hot in here while it’s actually quite the opposite.”

“I – I never talked to them about Hel”, Summerwhine stuttered.

A man in winter clothing, his face framed by a fury hood, sat on a white horse. Behind him where many more light horses with riders, all of them dressed in white.

The leader gestured one of them who got down from his horse and took a bag. He came to the four of them and handed them winter appropriate clothes. Sam had never been so glad about anything in his whole life not even on that day when Burt had given him Finn’s X-box and like a thousand games with the explanation that Finn was a grown-up now and Sam could have it all for free. (He hadn’t dared to ask whether Finn knew about this but when Burt said it was okay it surely was!)

Once he was sure not to freeze to dead he could concentrate on the important questions.

“Who are you and how did you know we would be here right now?”

“I am the prince’s messenger, Sir Ola-Homer-Whiterice. He is expecting you.”

“Uhm… that doesn’t explain anything”, Blaine said. No one paid him attention.

They got white horses. Blaine looked a bit fearful when getting onto his so Sam rode next to him.

“Those horses won’t shy from anything. They are hell horses”, he said.

Blaine frowned. “Is this supposed to lighten me up?”

“Yes?”

Again they rode all day long. When it got darker the leader Sir Ola-Whatever jumped from his horse, wetted his finger and put it into the air.

“Ah, I see, it’s night now!”

What? Sam looked to Summerwhine but he just nodded in agreement.

“We need to build igloos for the night!” Sir Ola said.

“Don’t you have tents?” Sam wanted to know.

“Do you want to die?” Sir Ola asked.

“Uhm… no?”

“Good. Then build an igloo.”

He seemed to be serious. Everybody else got from his horse and started to make snow houses.

Sam didn’t really know how or what was going on. He observed Summerwhine’s doings or rather Sherenade-Ukelele commanding him around but didn’t get how they had built an already two feet high snow ring. Like all the other elves. Some were even ready and were crawling in their snow houses, saying Good Night to each other.

“Okay, first: Are they magicians? Huh, forget I asked that. Second: It can’t be later than six, right, why are they already going to sleep?”

Blaine didn’t answer because he knelt in the snow, tongue jammed between his lips and tried to make the snow into a hand-big wall. It crumbled down and he started anew.

“That’s really cute but I think we need a bit more”, Sam said.

“Shut up and help me.”

Sam pulled a grimace. Then he knelt down but he didn’t touch the snow. He looked at Blaine’s fur framed face until the other boy returned his look.

“Damn you Kurt.”

“You can’t blame Kurt for everything, Sam, that’s really not –”

“Yes?” Damucurt appeared on top of Blaine’s little snow wall. “You thought of a wish now?”

“Yes! Yes, I have!” Blaine jumped up and clapped his gloved hands. “An igloo with sleeping bags and a heater.”

“You want a snow house with a heater in it?” Damucurt asked. “How dump are you?”

“No, no heater!” Sam quickly said.

“So just an igloo and sleeping bags?”

“Yes. And food”, Blaine said.

“Anything else?”

Sam and Blaine exchanged a look.

“Water”, Blaine said.

“Tacos!” Sam exclaimed. Blaine frowned at him.

“No.”

“Blaine, if we don’t have Tacos we don’t have anything!”

“Sam… Damucurt, just give us the house, two sleeping bags and groceries for a night, okay?”

“And Monopoly! We have got to do something.”

Blaine sighed. “Well, okay, and Monopoly.”

“Pokémon edition!”

“Sam!”

Sam crossed his arms. What’s wrong with wanting some fun? Tsk, Blaine had no idea of anything except how to whine about Kurt.

Some things just never changed.

So they got their igloo and settled down in their sleeping bags. Just couldn’t they play Monopoly because none of them had thought of asking for light. It honestly was the worst night of Sam’s life, including the night before. Sitting in the dark all evening was depressing and then he couldn’t sleep because he wouldn’t get completely warm and he thought about how they were outside and enemies could break in anytime.

Just when it got a bit lighter outside he feel into an uneasy sleep only to get woken up a few minutes later.

“Humans, we’re departing!” Sherenade-Ukelele called.

“Oh.” Sam opened his eyes and stared at the white glowing ceiling. Some drops melted from it and fell to the ground.

“Could you sleep at all?” Blaine asked.

“No. You?”

“No.”

Half an hour later (no breakfast, didn’t elves have to eat _at all_?) they were back on the horses crossing the white ice desert.

Luckily at noon they came in sight of a castle in the middle of a big hill. It was white (of course) and had a lot of towers. While they rode to it Sam barely noticed his surroundings, the sleepless night took its toll. Inside some butler welcomed them and guided them to rooms but that was it. As soon as he was in his room he fell on the bed and closed his eyes.

“Are you seriously going to sleep now? In the early afternoon?”

Sam opened one eye and glanced around. No one was in his room. The fuck?

Oh my God, it wasn’t the goblin again, was it?

Suddenly not so tired anymore he jumped up and faced the room. It was larger than the one he had had on the ship. There were huge windows with curtains, a chandelier, a bed that was big enough to be for two persons, cupboards on the walls and actually a table with chairs around it and a fireplace. Everything looked like coming from a standard middle-age movie.

“Have you come to take my heart’s desire?” he asked the empty room.

“What? No. What would I want with a hot bath? Anyway, you know you can get that here, right?”

Sam narrowed his eyes and looked around.

“I think you don’t understand the concept of ‘heart’s desire’”, he said in doing so. But yeah, a hot bath would be really great right now.

“Alrighty, I admit it. I’m a little dragon that just can tell your current needs. So what?”

A red creature not bigger than two feet landed on the table. Sam hadn’t seen where it had come from and he also wasn’t sure whether he might have fallen asleep and was dreaming now. Then again this was Under-Earth.

“So?” the creature that indeed looked like a mini-dragon asked.

“Soo…?” Sam said.

“Are you going to take a bath?”

“Certainly not with you watching. Who – what – why are you here anyway? What is your intention?”

“What do you mean, why am I here? I’m this rooms’ dragon. Duh.”

“Oh, yeah, how could I not think of that”, Sam said, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t know. Maybe you are stupid?”

“I am not! Will you grant me wishes?”

“Why the Fate should I do that?”

“Because you are a magical creature.”

A few loud knocks came from the door followed by an even louder. “Sam, this is Blaine!”

“Hi Blaine, nice to meet you”, Sam said on his way to the door. More knocks came before he opened it.

“Not funny!” Blaine rushed inside and it might have been Sam’s imagination but his hair looked even wilder than before.

“In my room is a – oh.”

The dragon waggled his ears as Blaine’s eyes fell on him.

“Yes. Something like that and it said I should go to the kitchen”, Blaine stated.

“Oh, yeah, food…. Good idea! I wish I could eat and bath at the same time!”

“That would be disgusting.”

“No, it would be totally cool.”

“Just order room service”, the dragon said. He sighed. “Seriously, since _years_ I’m telling Elisa that her advices are so unpractical. But she won’t listen to me, oh, no, not her dragon-born highness.”

“Room service?” Blaine stared at the dragon. With its little pawl it pointed to the bed. Sam went to it and found a menu on the bedside table.

Half an hour later the bed was crowded with food, and it was food heaven! Fries, pizza, burgers, Tacos (Blaine hadn’t believed Sam when he had said he couldn’t survive without that, come on!) and they even had milk shakes!

After the initial plunge into it Sam started to notice his environment again. The little dragon wasn’t to be seen anymore but somehow the fireplace was lit now. Their shoes were lying in front of the bed because they had decided that eating on the bed was so much healthier than eating at the table. It had been a good decision, Sam thought, as he laid back and extended his legs.

“Now I need to sleep for at least ten hours”, he said.

“Me, too.”

“Blaine?”

“No, I haven’t seen any sockets here.”

Sam jumped a bit. “Oh! Right! I could ask them that! Dragon!”

“My name is Hugo”, the voice said. Then the dragon sat in the middle of their food. Blaine lifted his head to frown at him.

“You dragons have odd names. And so short.”

“What about that hot bath?” Hugo asked Sam.

“Oh, yeah, I need to bath, too, but more important: Can I charge my phone here?”

“When bathing you should consider masturbating”, Hugo said. “Don’t ignore your bodily needs.”

Hot blood rushed through Sam’s ears. What the hell! He didn’t need a dragon to tell him to… well…

Sam glanced shortly at Blaine who… laughed.

“Not funny!” Sam hissed.

“To be honest, yes, it is. It’s the funniest thing all day!” Blaine laughed more and wiped some tears from his eyes. Sam grumbled and turned to the dragon – but it was gone again.

“Damn!” Sam let himself fall back on the bed.

“Should I leave?” Blaine _still_ laughed, oh man!

“Yeah, go to Elisa and let her command you around, I dare you!”

“Oh, you know what…” Blaine shook his head. “Think I’m gonna eat more first.”

He took a fry and put it into his mouth. Sam moaned in annoyance and watched the ceiling. Alright.

But he could actually really do with a bath.

“Do you think they have bath chambers here or what?”

Now Sam really didn’t know why Blaine started again with all that laughing. This was so uncool right now. Sam reached over and hit Blaine’s arm.

“Man! I’m dirty, okay?”

Blaine held his stomach and nodded. “Oh yeah, sure you are.”

“I don’t have this magical gene that makes me all clean and shaved when it’s impossible.”

Blaine wiped more tears out of his eyes and sighed.

“Aaah. That was so good.”

Sam crossed his arms and pursed his lips. “Well, glad I could help.”

“Sam… I have a shaving knife with me. You could have asked, you know?”

Sam chose to not say anything. Then Blaine actually started to bring the food left overs to the table. Did Sam have to help him now or what? Oh well he would have asked if he had wanted it, right? Sam closed his eyes and ignored the tidying noises.

Eventually the bed sank in and Blaine didn’t get up again. It was quiet for a few minutes then Blaine rolled over, buried his face in Sam’s shoulder and moaned. It made Sam shudder.

“This is the most exhausting adventure ever! When will we see Kurt and Rory? And what do we have to do to make that marriage happen I mean… they both want it, so what the hell do they need us for?”

Sam lifted his arm so that Blaine’s head could lie on his upper arm and his hand rested on Blaine’s wild curls. They were soft and not greasy and Blaine couldn’t tell him he also somehow carried shampoo with him. Not to mention they hadn’t had access to clean water.

“Well, we’re here now. Tomorrow we’ll know more”, Sam said. That’s at least what he hoped for.

“Yeah”, Blaine sighed. He lifted his head and looked at Sam. Their noses were very close to each other and somehow it made Sam’s heart beat really fast. Blaine was so cute and adorable. He didn’t know why Kurt would want to leave him, why anybody would want that.

He couldn’t get himself to break the eye contact and for a few moments they didn’t move at all. Then Blaine cleared his throat and lowered his gaze. Sam turned his face towards the ceiling and closed his eyes, breathing in. He was tired, he needed to sleep.

Blaine yawned and moved away.

“I’m so glad we have actual beds tonight”, he said.

“Mhm.”

“And bathrooms.”

Sam opened an eye and found his suspicion confirmed. Blaine sat there and smirked down at Sam.

Sam grabbed the next best pillow and threw it at him.

“You’re so on my blacklist now, Anderson!”

“What does that even mean?” Blaine laughed and threw the pillow back at Sam. Unfortunately Sam wasn’t in the mood to move so it landed on his face. He took it down and glared at Blaine.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

“Remember we’re blood brothers. You can’t do me any harm.”

“Damn, I knew I’d regret this decision.”

“Oho, now it’s all coming out.”

Sam laughed madly and eventually got up to tackle Blaine down and hit him with the pillow. Blaine just laughed and held up his hands in defence. Eventually he got a hold of the pillow and threw it far away. Sam allowed himself to bury his face in Blaine’s shoulder and take a deep breath.

Eventually Blaine cleared his throat.

“Sam? I think… uhm… you should actually take the dragon’s advice.”

“Wh-”

Before Sam could even finish the word he realised there was a bulge in his trousers, pressing right into Blaine’s leg. Oh gosh, embarrassing! Sam quickly rolled away and hit his face in his hands.

“Don’t look at me. Go away”, he said.

“It’s no big deal, Sam.”

Sam watched his fingers. Damn his needy body. Damn Blaine’s soft curls. Even though Sam didn’t know what they got to do with anything right now. Distraction, he had to distract himself, that’s right.

“Well. Uhm… We’ll see each other tomorrow then”, Blaine said.

The bed moved and Sam heard footsteps going away. When the door was closed he removed his hands and stared at the ceiling. Eventually he cleared his throat.

“Dragon? Hugo?”

“Yes, Sir?”

“Where are the bathrooms?”

 


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning Sam was woken up from a knock on his door. A servant wanted to help him get dressed. Sam could do this on his own, come on, so he sent him out until he was ready to be taken to the dining room.

He saw Summerwhine and Sherenade-Ukulele sitting at the end of the long table that was loaded with foot and went to sit next to them. Big windows let the sun come in and also showed him a great view of the city a few feet underneath the castle.

Sam took some bread and cheese and started eating. A few minutes later Blaine joined him. His eyes were dark-circled so Sam frowned and asked: “Dishunosleap?”

“What?”

Sam gulped down the stuff in his mouth. “Man, you look like you haven’t slept this night, too.”

“I did. But not very good, that’s right. Well, can you blame me? I’m worried sick about Kurt! What have they done to him?”

“Oh, no need to worry, Middle-Earthling!” Summerwhine interfered. “Your boyfriends are safe.”

“But _where_? When will we see them again?”

“Soon enough. Let’s discuss the marriage, shall we?” Sherenade-Ukulele said. She leaned forwards and clicked her spoon against her glass. Sir Ola who sat opposite to her looked up.

“Patience, my princess!”

“No! Where is Prince Armageddon-Apocalypse?”

“Here I am, I am here!”

A double door had opened and an elf with a long white dress strode into the room. His hair was fair and fell down to his waist, and he wore butterfly clips in it. With the most graceful movements Sam had ever seen he came to the table and put his hands carefully on the seat at the head of the table that had been left empty.

“Friends and foreigners, welcome, welcome”, he said. He looked at his guests, one after another. Sherenade-Ukelele blushed, Summerwhine held a hand in front of his mouth to hide his giggle and then it was Sam’s turn. What could he say. He preferred darker elves like Summerwhine but Armageddon-Apocalypse had something in his eyes that made Sam think hell, yeah, why not. He tried to smile charmingly and then Armageddon-Apocalypse’s eyes moved on to Blaine.

“Wow. He’s so beautiful”, Blaine whispered.

“I know, right? S.U. is so lucky!” Sam said.

“Yeah.”

Armageddon-Apocalypse laid his hands together and nodded.

“So glad you finally answered my request for marriage. I mean, what’s a prince got to do all alone in Under-Earth? Well, except war but that is _so_ frowned upon!” He sighed.

“True, so true”, Summerwhine nodded.

“But now you’re here, my fair maiden! Let the marriage games begin!” He threw his arms in the air.

“Uhm, what games? Can we please talk about the contract before?” Sherenade-Ukelele asked.

“Of course. My servants will deal with that.” Armageddon-Apocalypse snapped his fingers and Sir Ola got up.

“That’ll be me”, he said.

“Oh, right. My servant will deal with it, too”, Sherenade-Ukelele said. She threw Summerwhine a look. Summerwhine kept staring at Armageddon-Apocalypse so she rammed her elbow into his side.

“Ah! What?”

Sherenade-Ukelele gestured to Sir Ola. Summerwhine mumbled and got up. But when he wanted to walk past Armageddon-Apocalypse the prince turned to him with open arms.

“My fair maiden! How great you are willing to greet me personally.”

“Uhm… I’m a boy. This is my sister over there that you want. Well, until you’ll get to know her.”

“My fair maiden, don’t be so modest! Of cause I know you are a boy but we can’t be both called ‘prince’, can we? I have to say your beauty is much greater than what I heard. The rumours don’t do you justice.” He bowed and Summerwhine frowned even deeper.

“What?”

Sherenade-Ukelele jumped up. “No! I’m the fair maiden! I did not come here all the way to make my brother happy, _I_ want to be the happy bride!”

Armageddon-Apocalypse looked confused at her. “But your hair is light like mine! People with the same hair colour cannot marry, everybody knows that.”

“But… but…. What?”

Sam tried to giggle not too much. Of cause Summerwhine didn’t protest anymore when Armageddon-Apocalypse laid an arm around him and announced once again that the marriage games should begin.

“So, uhm, why do Blaine and I need to be here again?” Sam asked Sherenade-Ukelele who was sitting motionless in her chair.

“Witness to the marriage”, she said in a monotone voice. “If a union between two people from different world levels takes place the third level needs to be present as well or it is not valid… What the Fate!?”

Her last words sounded more like here again and she jumped up, making her chair fall over. She began screaming at Armageddon-Apocalypse and Summerwhine but Sir Ola and some men quickly came and took her away.

Summerwhine shook his head. “Tsk, she just can’t accept mentioned Fate. Seriously, she _so_ needs to get a grip on herself!”

“Witnesses to the marriage? That’s it? That’s the quest? That’s what Kurt and Rory have been kidnapped for?” Blaine asked.

“Hey, at least they don’t want to sacrifice us to their Gods, that a plus, right?”

“No! That at least would’ve been a better reason for all this drama!”

“Blaine, I mean yeah, I like the thought of being sacrificed too but I mean… it also would mean we’d die so…” Sam made a gesture as if he was weighing out the two situations.

Blaine deflated and hid his face in his hands. Like the good friend Sam was he patted on his back while said “There, there”, very inconspicuously ate a piece of cheese and watched Sherenade-Ukelele bringing down two of Sir Ola’s men. Two other were running by now and Sir Ola hid behind a curtain. Armageddon-Apocalypse and Summerwhine just talked about marriage as if nothing else was going on in the room.

“So… the issue folks here have is when people with the same hair colour want to marry. When it’s two guys there’s no problem?” Sam said.

“Let the marriage games begin!” Armageddon-Apocalypse shouted.

“Uhm, yeah!You just said that!” Summerwhine rolled his eyes and strolled away. Sam sighed. There it went, his opportunity to get some hot elf action.

The marriage games consisted of eating, drinking and partying. It was basically a huge bachelor party without strippers and instead people of both genders present. So to speak just a party, really.

Sam got tired of it on the third day. Not that he didn’t like parties but… three days in a row? There was even champagne for breakfast and even though he and Blaine had only started drinking a bit on the second day Sam already felt like the towns drunk. Well, among thousand other towns drunk.

Sherenade-Ukelele was maybe the worst. She either sat in a corner and threw a pity party for herself or danced around and made out with very many elves. This afternoon she tried to get it on with Sam but come on, he wasn’t _that_ drunk! She went on to Blaine and it was pretty hilarious watching him shout “I’m gay” and her answer with “So what!”. Then Blaine turned his head from left to right and the other way round while her face was hovering dangerously near.

“Okay. Okay.” Sam wiped the tears from laughing out of his eyes and decided to be, once again, a good friend. He took Blaine’s arm and pulled him away.

“Lady. Seriously. Ever thought that he might be in a relationship? Do you elves don’t care about that or…?”

“It’s a party!” she screamed, threw her hands into the air and hurried away. Sam shrugged unimpressed.

“That was easy. Why didn’t you just say you have a boyfriend?”

“I don’t know… It didn’t occur to me.”

Sam nodded. “Mm, understandable.”

“What that’s supposed to mean?”

“Now, don’t get all grumpy! I’m just saying… from what you told me about Kurt…”

Blaine raised a finger, said “No!” and also vanished in the crowd. What? He was allowed to say mean things about Kurt but Sam wasn’t? Talk about double standards!

Well. What to do now? Maybe Sam could leave the castle and take a look around the town? But better not without a guide. He took the chair next to Summerwhine who held a glass with red wine in his hand and stared at it.

“So. I was thinking about –”

“Am I too young to marry?”

“Uhm. I don’t know. How old are you exactly?”

“Seventy-seven.”

“Well. I…. uhm…” Sam wiped over his mouth and folded his hands. “That doesn’t seem… too young.”

“He didn’t even ask me!”

“Uuuuuuh. No?”

“No!”

Sam nodded. Maybe talking to Summerwhine was a bad idea. He turned to go when a hand grasped his arm.

“Wait! How about… we go somewhere else?”

“Hm?”

“Somewhere private?”

Sam puckered his lips. Did Summerwhine just ask him… no, clearly Sam misunderstood. So he said: “What for?”

Summerwhine rolled his eyes. “Are you Middle-Earthlings always that obtuse? To make out! Your life partner isn’t here right now and I need to enjoy my last free days.”

“Just a thought here but you could say no to the marriage…?”

“Why would I?”

Sam shrugged. Summerwhine still looked questioningly at him and expected an answer. Now let’s quickly think things through. It’s not like Sam was very true to Rory in his thoughts, he had to admit that. But actually doing something… no, he couldn’t do that. Maybe he was too noble and stuff because normal people wouldn’t mind a few little kisses especially when they didn’t love their boyfriends, right, but…

“Nah. I’m good. And I need to go find Blaine anyway”, Sam said. He freed his arm and got up. What would Blaine need for comfort now? Food or wine? Or maybe just a hug? Sam pushed the thought aside why _he_ had to comfort Blaine when it was Kurt’s fault that he was hurt and walked down the hallway to their rooms.

“Blaine?” Sam knocked once and listened. No noises came out of Blaine’s room. Just when Sam wanted to turn around he heard a muffled “Come in”.

“I’m sorry if I said anything wrong”, Sam began as he entered.

Blaine lay on one side on the bed, hugging a pillow.

“No, you didn’t. I was just… drunk and over-sensible.”

“I agree, we should stop drinking.”

“I didn’t say that”, Blaine mumbled. Sam went to the bed, placed himself opposite to Blaine and threw his arm around him. Blaine made a whimpering noise and cuddled up against Sam’s chest. It was a warm feeling that smothered Sam’s whole body and mind. He closed his eyes and started to hum a melody while his hand absently stroked over Blaine’s hair.

“ _If I lay here… if I just lay here… would you lie with me and just forget the world…_ ”

Blaine took a deep breath and released it with a sigh.

“Thank you”, he muttered.

“For what?”

“Oh, come on, you know. Being here”, Blaine said, lightly tapping his fingers on Sam’s chest and looking up to find his eyes.

“For being…”

He stopped talking and Sam couldn’t blame him. They were very close and he actually breathed in the air coming out of Blaine’s mouth. It might’ve been the wine that intensified the always nice feeling of intimacy but he couldn’t break away from it – and he didn’t want to. The look in Blaine’s eyes made Sam feel like he was really important and special, like there was nothing else in the world that could compare to him. He couldn’t even remember when he had felt that good with someone else. The fact that it was Blaine somehow made it even better, so easy to dive right into it and to return it.

Sam’s hand was still on Blaine’s head so he carefully glided it over his ear and let his thumb ran over Blaine’s cheekbone. The black haired relaxed and closed his eyes. It was great to see him like that, to know that Sam could do something to make him feel good. He had already said he would protect Blaine. But not only from outside enemies, also from all the pain life would bring to him. As much as possible at least.

“Don’t fall asleep, dude”, Sam muttered after some time when Blaine still hadn’t opened his eyes. He got a grumble as response.

“I want to go home”, Blaine said. He rolled away and Sam lay on his back, too. Home. What would await him there? He had lost his job and would never find a new one because goblins never forgot to cash in their fees. He hadn’t someone who he loved to return to. Somehow ‘home’ didn’t sound as appealing as Blaine thought it did.

“Don’t you?” Blaine whispered.

Sam shrugged. “It’s not that I want to stay here but… I don’t know.”

“Hey.”

Warm fingers touched Sam’s. He instinctively looked down and saw Blaine’s hand. Sam turned his head to him and intertwined their fingers.

“It’s gonna be okay”, Blaine said. “We’ll be together.”

“Yeah?” Sam cleared his throat because his voice had sounded rough. Would they stay in contact? Talking now was easy, like it had been in high school after that they had _not_ meet up at least once a week for a geeky get-together.

“We’re blood brothers after all, right?” Blaine smiled.

“Yes. Blaine?”

“Mh?”

“Summerwhine just offered to make out with me.”

“Oh, Sam, come on!” Blaine rolled his eyes, took back his hand and turned his face to the ceiling.

“I swear it’s true! Go and ask him, he did! I declined it, though.”

“And why would you do that? Isn’t that a dream coming true for you?” Blaine sat up and drove his hands over his face. Sam shrugged even though Blaine didn’t look at him and faced the ceiling again.

“Didn’t feel like it.”

“Let’s go back to the party.”

Sam sighed. Did they have to? Couldn’t they just lie here, like, forever?

But Blaine seemed to have found back to his old form. He already stood and tugged on Sam’s foot so he gave in.

When they arrived in the dining hall Sherenade-Ukelele was dancing with Sir Ola. Sam wanted to ask Armageddon-Apocalypse how long the party would continue (a week? A month?) but he didn’t see him. Then Blaine grabbed his hand again and dragged him between dancing people so Sam just went along with it.

-

On the next day Sam woke up with a bad headache. Hugo told him to swallow pain killers so he did that. Then he dressed and went to the dining hall to drink more wine. Well, at least that was the plan. But on his way there someone pulled him into a room and shoved him against the wall there, boring a cold pointy thing into his throat.

Sam gulped as he realised it was a dagger. Not good.

“Where is the crystalline longbow?” the elf who did this asked.

“What?”

“Where is it!?” The dagger bored deeper into his skin.

“I don’t know, okay?”

“Let me help you remember.” The elf snapped his fingers and from the side two men appeared. Between them they had Blaine, one of them pressing his hand on Blaine’s mouth while the other held a knife to his neck.

Sam stiffened as the saw the fear in Blaine’s eyes. No, no, no. Panic chocked him more than the dagger on his throat but he couldn’t let it get control over him. He needed to get them both out of this. Damn, wasn’t this supposed to be a safe place? Where was Summerwhine?

“I… I don’t even know what longbow you’re talking of, really!”

The elf with the knife bored it deeper into Blaine’s neck and Blaine whimpered.

“Okay, okay! I – I will tell you if you let him go”, Sam said.

“Other way round”, the elf said.

“Alright. It’s in the party room.”

“Are you taking me for a fool, Middle-Earthling? The crystalline longbow is the most valuable item in all three Earths and won’t be kept in the stupid Under-Earth prince’s living room. Now I ask again only one more time: Where is the crystalline longbow?”

 


	7. Chapter 7

He bored the dagger deeper into Sam’s skin and made him gulp with burning pain. A tickling drop ran down his neck. Sam’s eyes met Blaine’s in that he saw the sheer panic he had felt a few moments ago. But mysteriously it calmed Sam down. He couldn’t lose his nerves now, he had to do something to safe Blaine.

And then he remembered.

“Damn you Kurt! Makes the elves go away!”

“If with elves you mean those nasty little Under-Earthlings…” The fairy in the pink tutu appeared in front of the face of the elf that was threatening Sam and it confused him enough to take off some pressure of the dagger.

“Yes, I do, and I speak for Blaine since he is being threatened right now. It is his wish that both he and I are safe again.”

Blaine frantically nodded and the fairy raised her wand.

“How dare you think a vain little fairy –“ The elf was interrupted mid-sentence due to the fact that he and his companions vanished. Daggers and knifes fell to the ground clashing and Blaine stumbled a few steps forward. Sam closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall behind him.

“Vain little fairy, my ass. I can do mightier magic than anybody can imagine! Never underestimate the fairies! After all we are Fate’s biggest enemies!”

“Okay”, Sam gasped. “I’ll remember.”

“Thank you, thank you so much”, Blaine said to her. She nodded proudly.

“They are not gone forever, though, and you only have one wish left. Don’t waste it.”

She vanished with a _poof_ and let the two men shocked for life. Sam raised his hand to stroke over his neck, and Blaine came towards him.

“Are you okay?”

“What happened, how did they get you?”

“Like they got you, they came out of nothing and grabbed me. Wait, let me…” Blaine pulled a tissue out of his pocket and pressed it against Sam’s throat. Sam also wiped his bloody fingers on it and then let his hand rest on Blaine’s arm.

“Did they hurt you?” he asked.

“Not as much as they did you”, Blaine shrugged. “Just the back of my neck.”

“Bad enough!” Sam lifted his hand, put it on Blaine’s neck and caressed it. Blaine sighed quietly. In the next moment he leaned against Sam, buried his face on his shoulder and sobbed. Sam put his other arm around him and held him tightly. Oh God, what would he have done if he had lost Blaine? He didn’t even want to think about that possibility. He couldn’t. He didn’t want to, never lose him, never ever life without him again.

They minimally rocked back and forth until Sam’s trance broke and he started to be sensible again.

“We should tell Summerwhine about what happened. We need to get out of here.”

“No”, Blaine whimpered. Sam hugged him a bit tighter and let one of his hands ran through Blaine’s ridiculous curly curls. With his mouth pressed against Blaine’s temple he whispered: “I know, I know. But we have to leave before they come back. Come.”

He took Blaine’s hand and eventually Blaine moved. They picked up the weapons from the elves and planned on always taking them with them now.

In the dining room everybody was partying as if nothing had happened. Elves drank wine and danced around, and especially Sherenade-Ukelele looked pretty wasted as if she hadn’t stopped consuming alcohol for even one second since the beginning of the party.

They looked for Summerwhine and his fiancé and found them in deep conversation about doves.

“They have to be white and whistle the marriage serenade like all day long”, Summerwhine explained.

“But think about the _costs_ , my dear! White doves aren’t easy to find in Under-Earth!”

“I’m not sorry to interrupt your discussion. Blaine and I just got threatened by evil elves.”

“Oh, don’t mind Sir Ola, he looks worse than he is. You know, hard outside and soft inside.”

“No, really bad elves who wanted to know where a crystalline longbow is”, Sam insisted.

“The – what? The traitors? Didn’t I tell S.U. to imprison those folks?” Summerwhine shot a furious look at his drunken sister.

“Wait, how did you get rid of them then?” Prince Armageddon-Apocalypse asked.

“Uhm…” Sam was at a loss of words but luckily Blaine, who hadn’t let go of his hand, jumped in.

“I have a personal fairy and we wished them away.”

“Okaaaaay, maybe you should lay off the wine”, Prince Armageddon-Apocalypse said.

“It’s true!” Sam said. “Look!” He pointed at his wound on his throat.

“They hurt Sammy!” Blaine said in a high tone. Sam frowned and turned to him so that the others couldn’t hear what he was about to say.

“I’d say you should go and lay down a bit but there’s no way I’m letting you go wander off alone.”

“I’ll stay!” Blaine squeezed Sam’s hand. “I feel the same as you.”

“Oh, uhm, great.”

Sam bit his lip and turned to Summerwhine again, his stomach whirling with some weird and inappropriate excitement that he didn’t know what it was about. This as a serious, pretty ugly situation they had at hand here!

“I believe you. Honey, _do_ something about it”, Summerwhine said to his fiancé.

“What the Hel am I supposed to do? If a *cough* fairy has brought them away they are gone, aren’t they?” was the answer.

“They shouldn’t have been able to enter this castle in the first place!”

Prince Armageddon-Apocalypse pulled an offended face. “If people bring wine they are allowed to participate in the wedding games.”

“How about you marry right now and then bring us back to Middle-Earth?” Sam suggested.

Prince Armageddon-Apocalypse started to laugh hysterically. “Did you hear this boy? After four days of preparations, oh, hahahaha!”

“That sounds silly even in my ears”, Summerwhine nodded. “We’ll find a way to keep you safe, of course. Even if I have to guard your chambers personally again.”

“Don’t forget our deal”, Blaine said. “We only help with the marriage if we get home safe afterwards.”

“Yeah, yeah”, Summerwhine said.

Blaine eventually let go of Sam’s hand and went to sit at the table. Sam followed him, not pleased with the fact they had to wait and see what happened now. The traitors could be back any second, couldn’t they?

“I’m not in the mood to party right now”, he said as he sat down.

“Me neither. I wished we had a laptop or something else with that we could watch a DVD”, Blaine said.

“Oh my God, yes, I so need this! Watch a movie and forget that we aren’t home.”

“Eat Cheetos and goodies until we’re sick from happiness.”

“We could get food from the waiters, they are more than happy to serve us. But what about the movie?”

“I guess that’s why there were story tellers in the past”, Blaine said. “You could tell me a story.”

“Or _you_ could tell _me_ a story!”

Blaine thought about it and nodded. “Alright, I’ll do.”

“Really?” Sam hadn’t expected this.

“Yeah. You get the food and I’ll prepare the room. Yours or mine?”

“I don’t care. Hey, maybe we can get the dragon to tell us a story!”

Turned out they couldn’t because Hugo was an annoying little prat. When Sam entered his room with a food basket and Blaine hurried to the door to lock it Hugo said: “You should talk about feelings.”

“Uhu, well, maybe not now”, Sam said. He put the basket on the table and accidentally pushed Hugo off it.

“We’re here to forget all about what just happened”, Blaine confirmed.

“Ah, yes, that too. Living through a trauma and not talking about it can lead to severe depression”, Hugo said.

“We did talk about it”, Sam said. “Briefly. A bit. And now we want to forget.”

“Can you tell us a story?” Blaine asked.

“I’m a dragon who tells you about your needs, not fulfils them! Tsk!” Hugo breathed as much fire as a lighter would and turned invisible.

“Huh, it was worth a try.” Sam shrugged and laid bread, cheese and something like dates on the table. Granted, not the food he usually used to drown his sorrow in but those elves didn’t know about good food.

“Sam, uhm…” Blaine drew little circles with his index finger on the wooden table at that he had fixated his eyes on.

Sam made a questioning noise and decided to eat it all together. He had also gotten a drink that wasn’t wine. It was cyder. But hey, less alcohol in it, right? If only he knew where to get water. Yes, Sam actually wanted to drink water, as urgent as he never had thought he could want it.

Because Blaine stayed silent Sam eventually looked at him.

“What?”

Blaine’s face was as red as Hugo and he still wouldn’t look up. Sam started to worry but before he could imagine the worst cases ever Blaine’s eyes moved on to the fire place.

“Forget it”, he whispered.

“No, Blaine, what?”

“I just… I…” Blaine cleared his throat and looked at his fingers that fumbled with each other. “Hugo was right, the fear still sits in my bones. I was afraid for myself but I also worry about you. When I saw the blood on your throat…”

“Oh, Blaine, it’s all over now”, Sam said. “We both still live, don’t we?”

“Yeah.”

Sam examined Blaine for a few moments, not sure if everything had been said. But Blaine took the bread and went to the bed. He put it on the night table, sat down on the bed and exhaled.

Sam shrugged, brought the other food and drinks to the bed and then his eyes fell on the room service menu. Of course!

Twenty minutes later he had water and even Cheetos. The magical room service could do everything!

Eventually Sam let himself fall back on the bed and held his stomach.

“Uff, I’m so full!”

“Me, too.”

Blaine put the empty Cheetos bag on the ground and hugged himself. “Now I’d need a hot water bottle. They have some here, right?”

“What about my story?”

“First I need to get warm and comfy.” Blaine looked around for something but Sam already knew a solution.

“We just get under the blanket. I mean, if we fall asleep, who cares, right?”

He got up and pulled out the blanket. The bed was an elfish one, with thick silk sheets and fluffy pillows. He liked sleeping in here. It was always warm, too. He’d prefer not to lie in bed with jeans on it and wondered if it would be weird or inappropriate if he took them off. But they were blood brothers, right, that stood for enough intimacy to see each other in boxers? And it wasn’t like it was the first time. Okay, things were settled. Sam got out of his trousers, threw them on the ground and slipped into the bed.

“Uhm… are you sure? I mean…” Blaine puckered his lips and looked at the blanket he was still sitting on. “I mean it’s not like that but what will Kurt and Rory think if they’ll hear about it?”

“Oh come on, we lived through life threatening situations, we are allowed to comfort each other.”

Sam placed his head on the pillow. “Uhm, that might have come out the wrong way…”

Blaine laughed. And it was good he did, it lifted the heavy atmosphere and made Sam grin and waggle his eyebrows.

“Although we sure could use all comfort there is.”

“Oh, shut up!” Blaine leaned forward to hit Sam’s shoulder, then he got up and undressed. He took off his sweater under that he wore a white shirt, stripped off his jeans and climbed into the bed. The blanket came up until his throat and eventually brown eyes looked at Sam.

“Let me tell you the story about – what?”

“I’m sorry but you are too cute”, Sam explained his on-going grinning. “All tugged in and everything.”

“I’m not _cute_ , Sam Evans, I’m a grown man!”

“Sure. A cute grown man. And a cupcake.”

Blaine’s jaw dropped. “A – excuse me? I’m no pastry!”

“Oh, yes, you are.” Sam stretched out his hand to tickle Blaine’s side. Of course he got pushed away and that made it all the more fun. He approached again and not long until Blaine couldn’t fight back anymore and just laughed. It was the happiest, most relieving sound Sam had heard all day long, all week long. Since the beginning of their adventure. Since years.

Eventually it faded. Sam lay there gasping but it was nothing compared to Blaine’s heavy breathing. They still were close to each other and Sam moved his head to press his face against Blaine’s shoulder. Body contact was allowed, it was good, and most welcome in times of fear and desolation.

But damn. He was aroused again. It wasn’t his fault, okay, the last time he had sex had been some time ago. Masturbation didn’t count, not when there was a warm body in his bed… oh God, what a pervert he was! This was _Blaine_ , not Rory and also not Summerwhine or whatever hot elves ran around out there.

Sam turned to lie on his back and hoped his cheeks weren’t too red. But it didn’t help. Blaine simply followed him, threw an arm around Sam’s chest and laid his head on his shoulder.

“You don’t mind, do you?” he whispered. Sam managed to shake his head.

“Good, because you’re snugly. Now, the story… It’s about a prince and his princess. In fact it’s about all the obstacles he had to overcome to be with her. You see, one day Sleeping Beauty – who wasn’t sleeping yet – pricked her finger on a spindle and fell asleep from that. It was a cursed spindle, of course. She lay in her bed sleeping for a hundred years! Then the prince came and rescued her.”

“How did he do it?”

“By cutting down the roses that had grown all around her castle. Cool, isn’t it?”

“Was there a dragon involved?”

“No, this is ‘ _Sleeping Beauty’_ , not ‘ _Siegfried’_. Also, I thought you had enough of dragons at the moment?”

“Yeah, I do.” Sam sighed. He had cooled down by now, good.

“Now it’s your turn.” Blaine poked a finger into Sam’s chest.

“Okay, well… once there was this prince, who… fought a dragon called Hugo.”

Blaine snorted.

“The prince’s name was Charming. He was tall, blonde and the cutest of them all”, Sam said.

“Did he have to rescue a princess?”

“In fact, no. See, he had a brother who constantly got in trouble so he was busy saving his brother and couldn’t go on an adventure to find a princess.”

Blaine pulled a face. “That’s sad. Every prince should find their princess.”

“Would you let me talk? It’s not finished yet. One day the brothers got on an adventure together and… uhm… fought the mentioned dragon.”

“Was he evil?” Blaine whispered.

“Oh, yes. He always talked when he wasn’t supposed to. Anyway so the brothers fought the dragon and then… killed him. And then there was a princess…. I guess.”

“Sam, I get the suspicion you’re just making it up as you go.”

“What? No way, bro. It’s a real traditionally fairy tale and everything. But the prince didn’t want the princess, you know? So he broke up with her. And then the other brother broke up with his princess, too.”

“That’s sad, Sam!”

“It’s life! But in the end they found true love, of course, uhm…”

Sam saw the flaws in his tale, he really did. He had fitted it too much onto them. And as things were right now, with all the break-ups coming (because he was sure he and Rory would be over now that Sam had admitted he didn’t love him), they both would be alone in the end. And that wasn’t a happy ending at all.

“So they break up with their princesses but still found true love?” Blaine asked.

“Yes! Exactly! That’s what I’m saying.”

“Are you sure they weren’t stuck with each other for the rest of their lives?”

“Well. Maybe they were each other’s true love.”

As soon as Sam had said it he bit his tongue and wished he hadn’t. How would sound that now? Dumb, weird, strange… pathetic. He didn’t dare to look at Blaine. He didn’t want him to think Sam loved him or something.

“That’d be incest.”

Sam snorted, the heavy weight lifting from his chest and he turned his head to Blaine.

“It’s a fairy tale, man, don’t judge.”

“Oh, Sammy, you really need to sign up for a course in story telling”, Blaine sighed.

“What do we do about the evil elves now?”

Blaine shrugged. “Trust Summerwhine will protect us?”

“I guess, yeah.” Sam sighed and gazed at the ceiling. What a crappy situation they were in! Couldn’t they just be home already?

Someone knocked at the door.

“Who’s there?” Blaine called.

“It’s me, Summerwhine!”

“Mmh… can you go and open the door?” Blaine asked.

“No, you locked it so you have to open it. That’s an actual rule of fantasy worlds.”

“This world is as real as you and me”, Blaine mumbled but he crawled out of bed. Sam quickly put the blanket around him to not let the cold get to him. But a minute later Blaine came back. He sat up and leaned against the head piece, blanket up until his throat so Sam had no other choice than to do the same.

Summerwhine stood in the middle of the room and held up a dagger.

“I will protect you, chosen ones!”

“Cool”, Sam said. “Though I don’t like that title anymore. It made the evil elves think I know everything.”

“But you do know everything”, Summerwhine said with a baffled look at both of them.

“We do?” Blaine asked.

“Yes. You’re the chosen ones!”

Sam sighed. “Yeah, not helping. So how are you going to protect us? Because I for one don’t want to hide away in my room until the wedding.”

“I put S.U. into the drunk tank of the castle and by tomorrow she should be sober again, ready to be your personal bodyguard.”

“Uhm, yeah, that doesn’t sound so great as well. And does she even like us now that she isn’t the one the prince wants to marry?”

“She does want peace between the worlds as much as the rest of us.”

Summerwhine bowed to them and went to the door.

“I’ll be outside, standing guard for as long until you’re ready to get out again. Then I’ll be on your side, plus some of my fiancé’s men will be there, too. As long as we’re around nothing bad will ever happen to you.”

“Uhm, thanks”, Blaine said.

“Also I’m sorry I interrupted your mating ritual.”

“That’s okay”, Sam said. “We were just getting off on stories anyway.”

Summerwhine bowed again and left the room, closing the door behind him. As soon as it was shut a pillow hit Sam’s head.

“Ouch, hey! What the hell?” He grabbed it and ripped it out of Blaine’s hands.

“You so deserve that! Pervert!”

“What? It’s true!” Sam hit back and didn’t let Blaine take the pillow again. Of course he pulled at it all the more. For such a small person he was pretty strong and Sam found himself be dragged with the pillow. He wouldn’t let go until he lost his balance and simply fell on the bed. Or, to be exact, onto Blaine. Sam had to let go of the pillow to ease the fall and not hurt Blaine.

Blaine giggled and threw the pillow far away. But when he turned his head to Sam his laughter faded. His face was red and he gasped as he put his hands on Sam’s waist and his eyes wandered down his face.

Sam realised his left hand was buried deep in Blaine’s soft curls. When had that happened? And since when looked Blaine’s lips so breathtakingly soft? And he smelled like cake after a week of eating only healthy food, like a bag of Cheetos after an exhausting work-put, like something Sam not only wanted but needed. _Now_.

It was as if an invisible force pulled Sam further down. He searched Blaine’s eyes, silently asking for permission. Blaine returned the look a long moment and then watched Sam’s lips again. In doing so he wetted his own and that was just too much, that pink flash of tongue erased the rest of Sam’s working brain and he gave in to the force and slowly leaned down and…

Loud banging against the door.

“Chosen Ones!?”

Sam jerked up, heart galloping as wildly as Blaine’s horse a few days ago. He let himself fall on the bed, eyes fixated on the ceiling and cursing under his breath while Blaine got up and went to the door. Sam heard him talking to Summerwhine but he didn’t catch the sense of the words since he was busy forgetting what almost had happened. Now, why would he need to forget it, nothing had happened. Okay.

“Is this actually true, no joke?” Blaine asked.

“Yes, chosen one.” Summerwhine’s voice was in the room. Sam sat up and frowned at him.

“Yes! Oh my God, wow! Sam, isn’t that great? Oh wow, I’m going to…” Blaine hurried to the bed, took up his clothes from the ground and turned to the door again.

“I’m going to change. They are exactly now in the party room? No delay or waiting or anything?” Blaine asked.

“Yes, chosen one”, Summerwhine said.

Blaine grinned at Sam and ran out of the room.

“Wait… uhm… what?” Sam asked.

“I informed you about the arrival of my father”, Summerwhine said. “He brought the hostages with him, seeing that you can’t and won’t escape now.”

Sam’s jaw tensed and he pressed his lips together way too hard.

“As in… Rory and Kurt?”

“Yes! Great, yeah?” Summerwhine held both his thumbs up.

“What about the danger we’re in?”

“S.U., Sir Olaf and his men and of course me, we will protect you! Elderly Power!” He lifted a fist into the air and grinned.

“Okay. Get out now.”

Summerwhine pulled a face. “I liked the other chosen one’s reaction better.”

“Not my problem.”

Summerwhine bowed to him and left the room, closing the door behind him. Sam stared a full minute at it before he realised his grinding jaw and took pressure from it. Well. That was good news, wasn’t it? But why had Blaine seemed so happy, hadn’t he said he didn’t love Kurt anymore…?

Oh, well, it wasn’t important, not really. Sam got up, quickly put on his clothes and then almost wished for Hugo to show up and annoy him so he didn’t have to go. But – hey, Rory was here! That was good, really good, come on!

Sam went to the party room as slowly as never before. When he passed the room in that the evil elves had hidden in the morning he even stopped and looked into it. Huh, not back.

“Sam!” He heard Rory before he saw him. Sam turned to the table where Rory got up from now, storming to him to pull him into a hug. After a moment Sam closed his eyes, took a deep breath and returned it. Rory’s scent remembered him of home. Yes, he wanted to go home. Before Sam knew it or could control it a few tears rolled down his cheek.

“I’m so sorry you got kidnapped because of me”, he whispered.

“It wasn’t bad. Gandalf gave us food. Hey, did you know they have such a thing as mushrooms filled with salmon in Over-Earth?”

A laugh climbed up Sam’s throat. Oh, it was good to see Rory. He had missed him more than he had realised.

Kurt on the other hand Sam hadn’t missed at all. He still accepted the hug the other man gave him and patted his back during it.

“It’s good to see nobody killed you”, Sam said.

“You, too. Oh my God, how did this happen, right, and what even happened?” Kurt said. He stepped back and turned his head left and right.

“Is this real or am I dreaming or…”

“Yeah, he was like that all the time”, Rory said. “I figured it’s the shock.”

“How come you’re not shocked?” Blaine asked him.

“Oh, I’m not as grounded and reasonable as Kurt”, Rory said matter-of-factly. Sam had to laugh again. Yes, that was his boyfriend, he had chosen him because of reasons. Good reasons!

“Rory said he’s 1% goblin”, Kurt stated. “And I’m starting to believe it.”

“It’s true”, Rory said. He looked at Sam. “I’m Irish, which stands for something, right?”

“Sure”, Sam said. He squeezed Rory’s shoulder.

“Well, I don’t know about you but I’m hungry”, Kurt said.

“Yeah, we were just about to eat. Have you eaten?” Rory asked.

“Yes, like half an hour ago”, Sam said while, for no reason, avoiding to look at Blaine.

“We can still sit and drink with you”, Blaine said. “Right, Sam?”

“Huh, yeah”, Sam mumbled. He nodded to Rory and pushed him a bit. Rory laughed and tried to tickle Sam. Not that it worked because Sam always won those ‘fights’ but it was good to have him back.

They sat down at the table. Sam discovered Gandalf XXX in the room and felt kind of relieved to see him. He had brought them here, he could bring them back, right? Without exhausting journeys and everything.

“Gandalf, huhu, Gandalf!” He waved the white bearded man with the black stick who turned around and frowned at him. Sam grinned brightly.

“He will bring us back right after the wedding”, he told Rory and Kurt.

“Who’s getting married?” Kurt asked.

“Prince A.A. and Summerwhine”, Sam said. “That was so fucked up, everybody thought A.A. wanted to marry S.U. but then he chose her brother!”

“Oh, a wedding, nice”, Rory said. “I hope I won’t cry.”

Sam drank some wine and ate a few slices of bread with ham. He didn’t see Summerwhine or S.U. anywhere and wondered what happened to their promise to protect them. But Sir Olaf was around, he stood at the door, hands folded and staring straight into the air. He was probably on watch now, or at least that’s what Sam hoped.

Nothing happened the rest of the day though. Just when they were about to retreat to their rooms Summerwhine came to them and announced he had managed to cut down some things and didn’t even insist on white doves so the wedding could take place the next day already.

“Yes! Good”, Sam said.

“The biggest sacrifice was the doves”, Summerwhine said.

“And afterwards we can go home?” Blaine asked.

“I supposed so. Though you can’t fly home on the back of a dove, seeing there won’t be any.”

Rory nodded sympathetically but Sam really didn’t care about doves. At all. And he wanted to go to his room, now. He took Rory’s hand and dragged him out of the room.

Summerwhine followed them.

“Chosen one, I will guard your room at night.”

“Thank you so much, guardian elf.”

“I like that title.”

“Just don’t listen in”, Sam said. He could do without getting eaves-dropped when he had sex. And that is what he planned for the night.

 


	8. Chapter 8

Sam slowly realised he was lying in a bed. Did he have to work today or could he sleep a little longer? What time was it, anyway? Sam opened one eye and glanced at the clock hanging over the door – only that he wasn’t as expected in his bed room. He was in a strange, big, middle-age kind of room.

Oh, yeah, right. Under-Earth. Sam closed his eye again and tried to forget all about that world. Sleeping was better. Then someone moved and snuggled against his back, someone warm and soft. Sam smiled sleepily and laid his hand on the arm that glided around his waist.

“Morning”, he mumbled. As a reply he got wet kisses on his neck. They went down his whole body and made him shiver. Great way to wake up, great. Though he didn’t quite remember since when he and Blaine did that kind of thing. Maybe Blaine was still sleeping? Or, wait, no. Wasn’t… Rory…

Sam glanced over his shoulder. Right, Rory.

He laid back his head on the pillow and sighed. The kisses moved down his neck and Rory pulled away Sam’s shirt to kiss his shoulder. Sam backed away and slightly pushed him back. Rory stopped the kissing, alright, but his hand on Sam’s stomach still moved. Sam took his arm and freed himself from it, and he sat up to stop Rory from thinking of new ways to grope him. Sam was awake now and he didn’t need more encouragement to get up. He just wanted to get home and forget all about this strange adventure.

“Not in the mood?” Rory mumbled.

“I’m hungry, and I need coffee”, Sam explained. He also was tired of wearing the same clothes day for day but what could he do. At least they had bathrooms here. He took his jeans and sweater and told Rory he’d be back in a few.

Outside of his room was Summerwhine. He sat on the ground, leaned against the door and glided to the side as Sam opened it.

“Wow, and that’s called a guardian elf?” Sam commented on his snoring. “I gotta think twice about calling you that next time.”

After a hot shower he felt better, even in his old clothes. Summerwhine was awake when Sam came back and he grinned at him.

“Hey, chosen one! I guarded your room with my life. Just, uhm, when did you go out?”

Sam rolled his eyes.

“But doesn’t matter! Today is the wedding, are you excited!?”

“No.”

Summerwhine pouted. “I know. No doves.”

Sam snorted and went into his room. Rory was dressed by now and even chatting with Hugo. Again, Sam rolled his eyes and he went to grab the room service menu. But when he sat on the bed and stared at it he realised this wasn’t fun. It was, indeed, senseless. He could just as well eat in the party room.

“You should really try it”, Rory said. “Mushroom and salmon, I mean, crazy, right?”

“I’m a dragon. I only eat virgins.”

“Oh. Well, maybe they have some filled with salmon… Oh wow, that sounded pervert, right?” Rory laughed. He turned to Sam, who pushed a smile in his face. It wasn’t Rory’s fault that everything was shitty.

They went to the party room where people actually didn’t party anymore. Some elves were laying the table and Sir Ola sent them to another room where a breakfast buffet was set up. Seeing it Sam’s mood lightened up. Today everything would end, maybe things weren’t hopeless. Only… back in Middle-Earth he’d be jobless forever and he didn’t even know if it was the best idea ever to stay with Rory. But he didn’t have to think about that right now.

“Sam! They have shellfish! For breakfast!” Rory jumped up a little and put lobster and crabs on his plate.

“Great. Hey, hi.” Sam nodded to Kurt and Blaine who were standing already in front of the buffet. Kurt shot him a brief glance and nodded, Blaine held his eyes and smiled vaguely.

“Morning.”

“You, too.”

“So, today we’re going to be witnesses…”

“Yeah. Weird, right?”

“Yeah.”

Sam didn’t know what else to say anymore. Nothing came out of his mouth. Blaine didn’t seem to know, too. He didn’t even move and –

“Excuse me! I’m so hungry, having guarded your room all night!” Summerwhine pushed past Sam, who went a step back and let the elf get to the buffet. Then he focused on Blaine again but he still couldn’t figure out what he wanted to say. He knew he had something on his tongue but at the same time he didn’t. Okay. Well… didn’t matter…

Sam got a grip on himself and turned to the buffet. Shellfish for breakfast, not really his thing. Pancakes were better, yeah. He put some his plate and then grasped another one with the gripper and offered it Blaine, who stood next to him. Blaine held out his plate.

“Another one?” Sam asked.

Blaine nodded. After Sam had given it to him he smiled as a thank you. Sam returned it until someone put a hand on his shoulder on the other side.

“Your breakfast is getting cold”, Rory said.

“Uh, uhm, yeah? Okay”, Sam stumbled. He lowered his head to the table and didn’t look at anyone as he picked out more food. Then he went to sit next to Rory and answered his question about how shellfish would taste on pancakes with “disgusting”. Of course he didn’t try it and when Rory did, Sam watched with disbelieve how the Irish man smiled with pleasure.

“Mmh, so good, Sam, so good! You should try it!”

“I need to stay healthy for later. I’m a VIP today. Well, every day, actually, I’m a chosen one.”

“Don’t let it get to your head.”

“Naaah.” Sam smeared Nutella (apparently this shit existed in all worlds) on his pancake and bit into it. While he ate he watched the people around him. One day, just one more day! It would be easy-peasy!

Well, at least that’s what Sam thought. But Fate seemed to have conspired against him. Right after breakfast (Sam had to give her credit for that, though) a thick mist crept up in the room.

“Is this normal?” Rory asked. “Like happens every day?”

Sam narrowed his eyes. “No, but maybe special effects for the wedding…?”

“CHOSEN ONES! MUAHAHA!”

“Huh, or not”, Sam said. He hid under the table. Rory did the same while Sam tried to get a glimpse at Blaine and Kurt in the whole spectacle. Would Kurt watch out for Blaine now, was he specifically trained to do that?

Then someone pulled him out. From Rory’s scream he knew they did the same to him but Sam couldn’t do anything. His limbs were so weak all of a sudden and his eyes got heavier with every minute. How did he want to sleep now? Was it… sorcery?

-

Sam awoke because it was way too cold. He wanted to pull the blanket over himself but when he felt his way through his bed, well, there wasn’t a bed. There was a hard cold ground. And a person. Sam slowly opened his eyes but couldn’t see anything. His back hurt. And he didn’t care who it was next to him, one of the evil elves or Kurt (not that they were similar characters) so he drove down the person’s arm and closed his fingers around the hand lying on the stone floor. They responded the grasp and someone moaned.

“Where are we?”

“Dude, in the basement of the evil elves’ fortress, duh! They want to kill us.”

“Sam, this is not a video game… Shit.”

Blaine took back his hand and sat up. Sam did the same, because maybe it actually was a serious situation, you know, and waited until his eyes adjusted to the dark.

“Rory? Kurt?” he asked into the darkness.

“Oh no, no, no! They have killed them because they are no chosen ones!” Blaine whined.

“No, they didn’t”, Rory said from somewhere. “They have, however, tied me to a pole.”

“Dude”, Sam grinned into the direction his voice was coming from. This called for like a million jokes.

“Not now, Sam”, Rory said.

“Would you stop it!” Kurt said. “I’m freezing. I’m hungry. I want to go home!”

“We just tell them where the crystalline longbow is and then we can go”, Sam said. Blaine snorted, Kurt mumbled something and Rory did nothing.

“No, I know how we get out”, Sam whispered to Blaine.

“How?”

“Call the fairy.”

The following silence was somewhat too long for Sam so he eventually asked: “What?”

“I can’t.”

“Why the hell not?”

Blaine sighed. He glided closer to Sam and all of a sudden Sam didn’t know where he was anymore. Well, he knew in the back of his mind but his dry throat didn’t let him think about it. Blaine whispered into his ear and Sam couldn’t hold back a shudder. Damn, it was cold in the basement… but then again it was kind of hot. Weird.

“Her name.”

“Her… name”, Sam repeated just as quiet.

“What is Kurt supposed to think?”

“Right.” Sam bit his lip. What kind of reason was that for not saving their lives!? Damn you, Kurt, for real this time!

“Uhm, can someone please free me?” Rory asked.

But before anyone could do that a door was opened a level above and light shone down some wooden stairs. The now very well-known leading evil elf came down.

“Muhaha! Finally I got you where I want you. Now let me tell you my life story before I torture you.”

“If you could cut it to the part about the crystalline longbow that would be just fine”, Sam said.

“Well, okay! I need it because I want to rule the world! Muahahah!”

“Oh, really?” Blaine asked.

“Yes, really! Do you doubt my motives!?”

“No, I –“

“Every arrow fired with that long bow hits its goal, so yeah, I need it.” The elf arrived at the end of the stairs and his long shadow fell on Sam.

“Give it to me”, he said.

“Uhm… it’s in A.A.’s castle”, Sam said.

“LIAR! It is not! And who is A.A. anyway? Now tell me the truth!”

In his panic Sam glided back on the ground. He sat on something, or first he thought so. Then he realised it was something in his pocket and suddenly he just knew what would safe them. He pulled it out and held it into the air.

“Oh hopefully almighty Triton, I summon you!”

The evil elf burst out with laughter. “You think… you actually _think_ …. Oh holy Hel, wow, how _stupid_ are Middle-Earthlings? Hahaha! A sea God cannot… hahaha…” He held his stomach and kept on laughing. Sam exchanged a confused look with Blaine, then he threw away the moccasin. He had so known it was useless! He should demand a refund!

But then a loud bang went through the basement and water spit out of a broken pipe. Coincidence or not, the evil elf squealed, screamed “My hair!” and ran back upstairs.

The water kept flowing out and actually gathered together on the ground. Sam, being the hero he was, jumped up to free Rory. Strange enough, no one else was tied to anything. Maybe the elves had run out of string or something. But they couldn’t ran up the stairs to flee drowning because when they wanted to an oversized man stood there with arms crossed and a stern look in his face.

“Who woke me from my slumber?”

Rory, Kurt and Blaine pointed at Sam.

“Hi Triton, uhm, why don’t you have a beard?” Sam asked.

Triton rolled his eyes. “Please. I’m a God, I can choose to appear young and dynamic if I want to.”

“What’s that got to do with beards?” Blaine wanted to know. Sam nodded but then some elves upstairs screamed. It made Triton take a look at the environment.

“This is no sea scenery!” he screamed – and _buff_ vanished into thin air.

“Huh, not as helpful as I had hoped”, Sam said.

“Whatever, he made Legolas go away, let’s run!” Kurt said and hurried up the stairs.

They would’ve been screwed anyway if it hadn’t been for Summerwhine and S.U. They actually were here with Sir Olaf and his men and fighting the evil elves like their own life depended on it.

“This time I _will_ kill you!” S.U. screamed while fighting two elves at once.

Summerwhine discovered them and waved. “Hey, chosen ones! Look what I can do!”

He beat with a stick on an elf’s head.

“Great”, Sam said. “But better kill him for real?”

“Oh, yeah.”

He did. Afterwards he guided the four friends outside while S.U., Sir Olaf and his men continued to gently kill the evil elves. No violence included, just, you know, eliminating them.

“So. What a nice detour it has been”, Summerwhine said while he put his bloody sword in the snow and put on a jacket. “But I still need to get married so no more funny games, okay?”

“Okay, we’ll try to not get kidnapped anymore”, Sam said. He and his friends grasped jackets from a big pile of clothes, too, without asking any questions. It was cold as hell (probably because they were in hell…). Many white horses were standing around and breathing loudly and visible.

“Listen, Summerwhine. This is serious business. You promised us secured surroundings in return for our services as witnesses to your marriage. Now, we got threatened yesterday and kidnapped today, that’s not what I call safety”, Blaine said.

“I’m sorry, chosen one. To my defence, I came to rescue you even when S.U. argued against that.”

“But it’s not enough!”

Kurt and Rory exchanged awkward looks while Sam didn’t know whether he should agree with Blaine or, well, calm him down. His little nerves (small person had only little nerves, right?) must’ve been pretty shaken. But he also had a point. They had been in danger again and if Sam was honest it could’ve ended badly. He might not have been able to protect Blaine this time.

Sam stared at the white ground for a few moments while swallowing hard to suppress the upcoming burning in his throat. No, don’t think of a scenario of a Blaine-less life now, don’t _feel_ anything. There will be plenty of time for that back home. If they ever returned there. No, wrong direction of thoughts again. Of course they would.

Summerwhine whined a little. Blaine glanced over his shoulder at Sam, who went to stand next to him.

“You are right, chosen ones”, Summerwhine said and stood straight. “I have not protected you with my life. For example in the night I accidentally fell asleep for a second!”

Sam raised his eyebrows.

“After the marriage is done I will personally guard you home even when this means I have to leave my new husband behind and will not be able to spend the night with him!”

“Too much information”, Kurt mumbled.

“I sure hope so”, Blaine said. Then he sighed and let his shoulders sink with a brief glance at the horses.

“It will be okay”, Sam quickly said without thinking about it. Blaine’s eyes flew in surprise to him and as he understood that Sam was thinking about his horse incident his look softened. Sam’s feet moved without his consent, got a step closer to Blaine. But he couldn’t say what he had on his mind. He couldn’t assure Blaine once again that he would be there for him because just one minute ago Sam had proven to be a failure. Should he say he was sorry, should he say it would never happen again…?

“Better watch out that the snow under your feet doesn’t melt.”

Rory’s voice startled Sam and he turned to him. Before he could ask what he meant loud screams blew through the air. S.U., Sir Olaf and many unnamed elves stormed out of the dark, evil castle that lay behind them.

“Go! Go! Go!” Sir Olaf screamed. “We set fire, it will burn down soon!”

Summerwhine let out a weirdly high pitched scream and ran to a horse. Since the elves hadn’t thought of bringing horses for the people they would rescue they all had to ride behind one of them. Sam got Summerwhine and after his initial inappropriate joy about that (they were in a serious situation, man!) he realised it wasn’t as great to be close to the dark haired elf as he had always thought it would be. There was no sensation to it but Sam had to restrain from turning around to look at Rory all the time. Which was weird, actually, because this was neither cheating nor did he feel really guilty towards his boyfriend. Only a bit as if he had missed a duty, the way he would feel about not having done his homework.

The ride wasn’t even a very far one. An hour later they came in sight of the white castle and not long after that Sam and Rory were in their room and washing up for the wedding.

“Sam, can we talk?”

“Oh, what? I didn’t do anything! I didn’t even look at Summerwhine’s hair! Yeah, well, okay, I did but only because it was right on front of my nose!” Sam wiped with a towel that had been dampened in hot water over his face and turned to Rory who sat on the bed.

“Summer… that weird gay elf?”

“The movements were because we were horseback riding, you know, actual horseback riding”, Sam said.

Rory frowned. “Yeah, great. Look, when we’re back in our world I think we should go separate ways. Don’t you think?”

“No! I mean, why? I really didn’t do anything.”

Sam bit his lip and pushed hard against some feelings that wanted to come up. He knew he had thought about breaking up, too. No, he knew he had planned on talking to Rory about it. But not _before_ the wedding, come on!

“Look. We both are aware that it’s not the same as in the beginning anymore. It kind of has turned into friends with benefits, hasn’t it? So yeah. It has been really great, we didn’t need a rebound or anything. But it’s time to move on now, isn’t it?” Rory said.

Sam bit his lip and turned to the water bucket again. He almost wished Hugo would show up so he could strangle someone just for the sake of it. Breaking up? No! What would he do, where would he go, he would end up alone!!!

“Why can’t we still be friends with benefits?” He said without turning around. “Until one of us meets someone else and falls in love and all that jazz.”

“Because that has already happened.”

“Oh.” Sam puckered his lips. Of course. Rory had probably spent too much time with Kurt locked in a tiny little room or something and now they loved each other. Shit! What would Blaine think about that? Man, how could they do that to him!?

“So mean”, he mumbled.

“Are we good, yeah? A done deal?” Rory asked.

“So be it”, Sam said because he had always wanted to say something like that. It sounded cool _and_ authoritarian.

He didn’t feel that cool anymore when they walked into the party hall that now was the wedding hall. White curtains were attached to the high windows, rose petals were lying on the laid table and a weeding bow stood at one end of the room. Sam could already smell nice food and his stomach growled (getting kidnapped had worked up a hunger) but the thing that actually took away his coolness was when his eyes fell on Blaine and Kurt standing at a window. Kurt held away the curtain and they were looking out, quietly talking and Sam wondered if Kurt had already told Blaine. Oh man… so mean!

Eventually they turned around and looked at them so Sam figured it was okay to join them now. He rounded the table and carefully approached his friends. Kurt didn’t look very shattered. Blaine neither, though he held Sam’s eyes as he came closer and maybe was close to crying…?

“Is… everything okay?” Sam asked, looking between the two of them.

“I’m hungry”, Kurt said. “And tired and I want to go home.”

“Oh. Uhm, me, too”, Sam said. He looked at Blaine again, questioningly raising his eyebrows. But Blaine smiled now. Huh, weird.

“Ready?” Blaine asked.

“For what?”

“Our task of course.”

“Oh, that, yeah, right. I’m totally ready to sign some papers”, Sam said. “Or do you think the Under-Earth witness ritual requires kissing the bride?”

Blaine shook his head. His eyes lost some of their light and wandered through the room. Sam bit his lip. So Blaine _was_ heartbroken and just tried to hide it. Damn you, Kurt.

Sam startled when he looked at Kurt and found him glaring at him.

“What?”

“You’re the biggest idiot in all three worlds.”

“Wow, that came out of nowhere. What have I done?”

“Kurt, don’t”, Blaine quietly said. Kurt snorted and went to Rory, who stood in front of the wedding bow and carefully examined its leaves. Sam sighed while looking at the two of them. Such an unlikely couple.

“And what have I done, now?” he asked. “I’m not the one tearing people’s hearts apart.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well… them.” Sam waved to their friends and eventually turned to Blaine. “Has he told you?”

“Told me _what_?”

“Nothing.”

Blaine frowned. His gaze wandered to their friends, too, and he took a deep breath. “Kurt and I broke up on mutual agreement.”

“Oh.”

Was Sam supposed to say he was sorry? Mutual agreement meant Blaine had wanted to break it off, too, right? But was he sad because this long-term relationship had come to its end? Only a week ago he had said how he wanted him and Kurt to work. How much he had tried it. When had Blaine decided it was hopeless? Could they maybe talk about it, like, right now and as detailed as possible?

But somehow nothing came out of Sam’s mouth except “I’m sorry.”

“I saw it coming a long time. I even knew it had to be like that. Just… I wasn’t ready to let go before. But we talked a lot and I realised how long it had been over. And even that I am ready to move on already.”

His eyes met Sam’s and again Sam wanted to ask further questions but this time he couldn’t because Sir Olaf loudly announced that the royal couple was about to enter the room and everyone should stand as neatly as they could. Sam and Blaine went to their friends in the front row. Sam straightened his shoulders and drove some fingers through his hair to appear extra neat in his clothes that he had worn every day since being taken from Middle-Earth.

First Prince Armageddon-Apocalypse in his usual glittery clothes entered the room and walked up the aisle between the people. He positioned himself in front of the bow and turned to watch Summerwhine, who looked so proud in his neon pink tuxedo, coming in. The colour hurt Sam’s eyes when he looked directly at it so he focused on Summerwhine’s bright grin. Everybody could practically _feel_ how happy he was. Sam guessed that’s how one felt when they had found their true love. Oh, wonderful!

“Are you crying?” Blaine whispered.

“No, dude, come on. The dress hurt my eyes.”

“Well, it _is_ alarmingly glary.”

Sam nodded. He glanced at Blaine to see if he needed comfort in those times of utter happiness. But he seemed alright, lightly smiling and watching the now starting ceremony. Sam decided to do the same and wondered when it was their turn to give their witness statement.

Funny enough, they went through with their text and kiss and everything without asking for Sam’s help. When the newlywed couple walked down the aisle and everybody cheered at them Sam looked around in confusion. He spotted Gandalf XXX and inconspicuously went to him.

“Hey there. So, when will Blaine and I need to sign the papers?” he asked.

Gandalf XXX turned around and frowned at him.

“What papers?”

“Duh, we’re the witnesses to the wedding!”

“Yes, so, what papers?”

“Doesn’t it have to be written down?”

“No, why would it? You were here and paid attention… you _did_ pay attention, right?”

“Uhm yeah.” Almost all of the time.

“So, that’s gotta be good enough for Fate. Most of the time she is drunk and _non compos menti_ anyway.”

“What?”

“She likes to make plans and changes them in the next second. Nobody actually likes her but what can we do, she somehow is non-destroyable.”

“Oh. But she doesn’t, like, assign you one person as love of your life and then take it away and bring in a new person, right?”

Because if she did it would explain a lot of what was going on in the world. But somehow Gandalf frowned even more at Sam now.

“What’s got Fate to do with Love? Nothing! They don’t even _like_ each other! OMG you ignorant Middle-Earthlings!” He turned around and talked to an elf, clearly done with the conversation.

The party went on the whole day and it just felt like any other day in the castle. The evil elves were destroyed now but Sam still felt uneasy and wanted to return home as fast as possible. He ate pretty much because he was starving but when this was done he just sat there, stared at the table and declined all offers of elves who wanted to give him wine.

Rory and Kurt had the times of their lives and Sam secretly watched them. They hid pretty well that they were a couple. Just why? They were on a gay wedding party after all. But maybe they didn’t want to hurt the people they just had left, yeah, that’s gotta be it.

When it got dark outside Sam went to Summerwhine.

“So I guess we’re departing only tomorrow?”

“Wha- heeeeeeey chosen one!” Summerwhine grinned and waved hastily even though Sam stood right in front of him. Sam rolled his eyes and turned around again. Tomorrow then.

He went to a balcony to get fresh air. Granted, it was freezing outside but inside there literally was no air. He took a few breaths and stared at the white almost full moon in the dark sky. The country looked actually peaceful and under different circumstances Sam could’ve enjoyed being here. For example as a vacation. And right now, why did he even want to go home? He had no job and would never find a new one, so he soon would lose his apartment and had to live in the streets and no one would love him and…

Shit. Maybe he should stay here forever.

Sam went back inside and told Rory he’d be in their room. There he discovered that someone had lit the fireplace so it was warm. Sam changed into his night clothes, crawled under the sheets and stared at the dancing shadows at the wall. Was it sensible to sleep with fire in the room? But before he could think about that a knock came from the door.

“Sam, are you already asleep or…?”

“No, come in.”

The door opened slowly and only a minimum, just enough to let Blaine enter. He closed it just as quietly and came to the bed. Sam propped himself up on one elbow, looking at Blaine until he could made out his eyes in the dim room. Man, how would he ever survive without Blaine back home?

“We won’t lose contact again, right?” Sam said before he could think about it.

Blaine held his eyes and sat down at the side of the bed. Sam lifted the blanket but Blaine hesitated.

“I’m just here to say goodnight”, he said.

“You could as well sleep here. Rory and Kurt will be glad to share a room.”

“They will?”

“Kurt really didn’t tell you?”

Sam let the blanket down, as well as he gulped down his disappointment. But Blaine started to take off his shoes and eventually lay next to Sam. On the blanket but it was better than nothing.

“Wouldn’t you miss Rory when he stays the night away? You missed him, right?”

Sam bit his lip and his eyes drifted to the fireplace. He had wished Rory with him a few times, that much was true, but when Rory had come here Sam had realised it was better if it was just Blaine and him. Him and Blaine. They had needed this time to bond again. It had been so great and nice and… Actually, Sam didn’t need anybody else.

“Well, I told you how things are with me and him”, Sam said. “I’m not even sad we broke off.”

“Oh – you did?”

“Yeah, this afternoon.”

“So we’re both single now.”

“Yeah. Funny, how fast things can change, right?” Sam smiled sadly.

Blaine exhaled and turned to lie on his back while he drew up his legs. Sam stayed where he was and watched his friend. He was such a precious human being. How could Kurt leave him, not fight for him? Yeah, sometimes things like growing apart happened but Sam didn’t understand it.

Blaine drove his hands over his face.

“I’m tired. I’ll go to sleep now, too, and tomorrow… well. I will be glad being home again.”

Sam shrugged barely noticeable. “Okay.”

Blaine turned his face. “You don’t sound so excited.”

“I don’t know what life has in store for me, you know? I lost my job, my boyfriend, I… I don’t know. I’m afraid.”

“Oh, Sam.” Blaine turned to lie on the side and extended his arm until his hand lay on the blanket that covered Sam’s shoulder.

“It will be okay. I’ll be there for you. As you said, we’re not going to lose contact again. I won’t let this happen.”

Oh God, it was as if a stone fell off of Sam and angels were singing. Before he knew it he smiled gratefully and pulled his hand out from under the blanket to lay it on Blaine’s.

“Promise?” he whispered.

“I promise.”

Maybe life wasn’t so bad after all. Sam grinned until his cheeks started to hurt. He let it fade away and slowly closed his eyes, felt sleep coming nearer but when Blaine wanted to pull his hand away Sam tightened the grip.

“Don’t”, he mumbled.

“Let me come under the sheets then”, Blaine whispered. Sam let his hands go and half opened his eyes to see if Blaine would leave the room. But he didn’t, he glided under the blanket and to Sam. The sudden closeness sharpened all his senses. He smelled Blaine, he felt his warmth, he saw his black curls, sensed his breathing. Blaine was everywhere, and that was good. Sam put his arms around the other man, pressed his lips against his cheek to also taste Blaine and closed his eyes again. Now he could fall asleep safely.

From very far away he heard “I love you” but he couldn’t answer, he had no control over his body anymore and soon he passed out.


	9. Chapter 9

“Damn it, why can’t Gandalf just beam us back?” Sam asked the next day. “That’s how he brought us here, anyway.”

“Daddy is a busy man”, Summerwhine said. “And he kind of didn’t like the fact that _I_ married Army.”

“You call your husband Army?” Sam asked.

“Yeah?”

Summerwhine looked questioningly at Sam so he let it go. They were about to start for the way back anyway and he put on the thickest jacket Sir Olaf had found.

“So, _how_ will we get back?” Blaine asked.

“We just need to get to the portal. It will transfer you to your world” Summerwhine said. “Easy, right!?”

“Be careful!” Prince Armageddon-Apocalypse came into the room and started telling Summerwhine about things he had to watch out for while travelling Under-Earth.

“They are such a cute couple”, Blaine said. Sam looked at Kurt and Rory, who, indeed, had spent the night together in Blaine’s room. Rory had told Sam it had been because they hadn’t wanted to wake Blaine up but Sam knew the real reason.

“Are you ready?” Summerwhine asked. They were. Sir Olaf and his men were, too, and the group went outside. This time they had enough horses for everybody. Sam threw Blaine a glance but the black haired man whose curls were hidden under the hood of his jacket climbed up his horse without any sign of distress.

“Where are we going to?” Kurt asked as they had started their journey.

“To the portal!” Summerwhine said.

“But where is it?”

“You’ll see!”

Kurt looked confused at Sam, who shook his head. “If you think you can ever get information from him you’re wrong.”

The boring part of travelling began. There was nothing to be seen except white hills now and then. The sky was clear blue with a bright (but not warm) sun and Sam had time to miss Commando again. Was it weird how horses made him want to shoot people?

When the sun was at its highest point of the sky (yes Sam _knew_ stuff about nature now) a dark line appeared on the horizon. It only took like one more hour of concentrated staring before Sam realised it were mountains. Wow! So… ordinary and boring.

“Are the mountains our goal? Is there the portal?” he asked.

“Indeed”, Summerwhine said. “I’m crying because we have to part there.”

“Oh.” Sam wasn’t really sad about that but he better didn’t say anything to not hurt the elf’s feelings. Only a few more hours and he’d be home, yay!

“I’m hungry”, Rory stated another hour later. “It was much more fun being held captive because we got food there.”

“Yeah, food wasn’t the only thing you got out of it, was it”, Sam mumbled.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

“Nothing.”

When they reached the mountains Summerwhine informed them they still had to climb them. He got down from his horse as well as the four Middle-Earthlings. Sir Olaf gave them two of his men for protection and they followed the group as quietly as always. Summerwhine waved Sir Olaf from a few feet up but Sir Olaf turned his head into the other direction.

“Tsk, so impolite”, Summerwhine said.

It got a bit warmer due to the snowlessness of the mountain so they opened their jackets, and soon they put them off.

“Can we let them lie here and you’re going to pick them up on your way back?” Rory asked Summerwhine, who thoughtfully scratched his chin.

“Can I let this happen?” he wondered. While he still was thinking Sam sat down on a stone and rummaged in his bag. He had to have some water in here, right?

Someone sat down next to him and Sam looked up. His heart smiled when he saw it was Blaine and he let his mouth copy that action.

“We’ll be home soon”, he said.

“Yeah.” Blaine briefly watched Rory and Kurt talking to Summerwhine, then turned his head to Sam. “Look, there’s something I need to tell you and I want to do it now because I’m afraid I’ll chicken out when we’re in New York again.”

“Oh? What is it?”

They looked at each other and something in Blaine’s eyes made Sam’s heart beat faster. The world shrank to only the two of them, nothing else mattered. Sam wanted to hear what Blaine had so say so badly he was about to cut in and cast it out himself. Even if he didn’t know what Blaine was about to say. But it had to be good. The strong force from a few days ago was back, too, and made Sam glide closer to Blaine.

Blaine gulped. His eyes wandered down on Sam’s face but then he closed them, took a deep breath and shook his head.

“I – The last days have made me realise – uh.”

“Yes?”

“That I’m… in…”

“And _bamm_ , here I am! Did I promise too much? Have you forgotten all about me?”

A green grinning kobold appeared in front of them, putting his arms into the air and dancing a little.

“Oh, if you only knew how long I waited for this moment, the grand and especially exquisite finale! I’m here to take what is mine”, the kobold said.

“Uhu, that’s really great but you’re kind of interrupting something here”, Sam said. Stupid kobold, just stupid! Couldn’t he just go away… _now!?_ He could come to take Sam’s future away when they were in New York, not now when Blaine needed to tell him something super important!

The two Olaf men saw the kobold and drew their swords. But while they were still approaching the kobold got into action.

“I’ll make this quick. As you remember you owe me what your heart desires most so yeah, I’ll take that now. So long, we will never see each other again!”

He jumped to Blaine, buried his little fingers in his arm and from one moment to the other both kobold and man disappeared into nothing. Sam was frozen for one moment, body as well as mental activity on pause but when the shock was over he jumped up and started to scream.

“You can’t do that! Come back, like, right now! You said you wanted to take away my job! That’s not fair, people are not to…. AAAAAAARGH!”

“What happened?”

Rory, Kurt and Summerwhine hurried to him but Sam still couldn’t talk sensible. He wanted to strangle and kick people really hard, he wanted to throw himself to the ground and scream until the kobold gave him back Blaine. What was Sam supposed to do now? He had promised to take care of Blaine! The Kobold couldn’t just… What the hell!?

“Sam! Calm down! Where is Blaine, did something happen?” Kurt looked around.

Sam pulled at his own hair, walked a few steps forwards and back and tried to explain things while his brain was still on high alert and all he heard in his mind was desperate screams.

“The kobold took him. Stupid thing. He was supposed to take…” Sam bit his lip and gazed into air, suddenly motionless again, this time with the weak shock of insight rushing though his body.

He cleared his throat. “A few days ago we met a kobold and I bought his help. Well, he wanted…”

“Kobolds always have the same condition”, Summerwhine took over. “They want what your heart desires most. You should never agree on that term.”

“Thank you very much for that advice”, Sam hissed. “I thought he’d take my job away from me.”

But he had taken Blaine. Sweet, gentle, adorable Blaine. The man Sam needed the most and… desired and…

“Really, your job?” Kurt frowned and exchanged a glance with Rory, who sighed.

“Hearts don’t desire financial security more than love, Sam”, the Irishman said. “It is important and a basic need, yes, but it’s your heart he was talking about. Feelings. Love.”

“I… I know”, Sam mumbled. He couldn’t lift his eyes from the ground. He loved Blaine. He actually did, hell, yeah, how come he had never realised it before? And now he had pushed him into his annihilation by loving him. Damn, could ne never do anything right?

“No. No, we can’t let this happen. How do we follow them?” he asked Summerwhine, who looked up now from cleaning his nails.

“Huh? Oh, no, you can’t do that. Kobolds take their stuff and vanish forever, sorry.”

Sam desperately turned to Kurt and Rory who looked as helpless and anxious as he felt.

“We _have_ to do something!”

“But what?” Rory said.

“I don’t know! Anything!” Sam held himself back from shaking Summerwhine until he told him what to do.

“No, we just go to Gandalf and ask him for help. Yes. Go, go, go!”

Summerwhine sat down on the ground and yawned.

“No, Daddy won’t help us anyway.”

Sam turned to his two remaining friends again, silently pleading at them. Until a thought struck his blurred mind.

“Wait… Aren’t you surprised that he took Blaine of all people?”

Sam looked at Rory who was the one who should be shocked the most. But he shook his head while Kurt frowned at him.

“Please, Sam, we’ve seen your heart-eyes when you look at him.”

“That’s why we broke up, remember”, Rory said.

“ _What?_ No! We broke up because you two were… are… in love!”

Kurt snorted. “Excuse me, but… no. No offence, Rory.”

Rory shrugged. “None taken, and right back at ya. That’s the proof, love truly blinds people.”

Sam sighed but he couldn’t bother with this incredulousness right now. Another scream attack came over him and he just let it out, shouting at the skies and making birds fly up from the trees. He walked around, kicked a stone away (it very accidentally stroked Summerwhine and the elf complained by saying “Ouch!”) and went to a close-by standing oak to punch it.

Though the tree didn’t hit back it hurt his hand pretty hard and Sam decided to not let his anger out on innocent creatures that couldn’t even move on their own. Summerwhine had to be good for something, after all.

“You! Get up and bring me to Gandalf, I don’t care if you think he won’t help. I will make him. I will find a way to –”

A sudden and brief flash of lightening went through the place they were standing on and when Sam could see what was going on he, again, could only stare but not move a single limb.

Blaine was sitting there on the stone as if he had never vanished. He briefly glanced around and inhaled.

“Ah, good, it worked.”

“What? How…?” Sam felt relieve rushing through his chest but he wouldn’t act on it until he knew this was real. No trick. Just Blaine.

Blaine shrugged and smiled warily. “I still had one wish, you know, from… the fairy.”

“And he won’t come back? To get what he wants?” Sam doubtingly looked around and then at Summerwhine who finally got up. He brushed the dirt off his pants and waved the Olaf men to come closer.

“If a green kobold appears kill him, fast and deadly, okay?”

“Is that possible? To kill a kobold?” Sam wanted to know.

Summerwhine frowned at him. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Gosh, how would I know?”

Sam couldn’t complain about how he never knew how this Under-Earth world worked because the kobold actually was back now. Sam quickly went to Blaine and laid his arm firmly around his shoulders. It made him shudder, thinking about his newest insight but he couldn’t let this take control right now.

The kobold just laughed at him.

“You Middle-Earthlings are such idiots! Do you think wishing you away will save you from – _urks!_ ”

“No, but killing you will”, Blaine commented on the fact that a dagger had been bored through the little man’s chest. He looked down in horror and then dissolved into thousand green pieces that got carried away by the wind.

Sam loosened his grip but couldn’t bring himself to let go of Blaine. And why would he.

“Ah, see, so you _are_ good for something!” Summerwhine said while patting one of the Olaf men on the back.

“Are you okay, Sam?” Blaine asked.

“No, of course not! Don’t ever do this again! I thought I lost you!”

Sam buried his face in Blaine’s terrific curls and took a deep breath. Blaine threw his arms around him, what was good, really good. They held on to each other and Sam’s mind wouldn’t stop spinning. It was like the presence of the other man drove him crazy, but in a good way. In a fantastic, lovely way.

He leaned back to catch Blaine’s eyes. They were big and lovely as ever. Before Sam knew it his hand was on Blaine’s jaw, his thumb stroking nervously over his cheek. It was exhausting to resist the urge to simply kiss those lips not far from his face but he didn’t want to startle Blaine. Sam looked from his mouth to his eyes again and when he realised Blaine’s eyes were glued to his own lips he leaned in closer. His heart was pounding heavily and in the back of his mind he waited for Blaine to push him away. That’s why he moved as slowly as humanly possible.

But then Blaine’s mouth crashed onto his firmly. Everything in Sam moaned with relief, oh finally! He tightened his grip, moved even closer to Blaine and responded to the kiss with just as much force as Blaine. He wouldn’t have been able to tell up from down, left from right if someone asked him now. Everything around and in him was Blaine and that their lips moved together as if nothing else mattered was exactly what needed to happen. Sam had never felt more valued in his whole life and it was Blaine’s touch that transferred that feeling onto him. Because Blaine was special and precious and he shared his wonderful being with Sam.

Blaine pulled back a bit but not enough to break their contact, and said against Sam’s lips: “I love you, Sam.”

And just like that everything got even hotter. Sam gulped and drew in cold air through his mouth. He couldn’t stop tasting and licking Blaine’s lips though he also couldn’t keep back the words: “Me, too. Blaine, you’re so… wow.”

Blaine giggled and his hand stroked over Sam’s side, up and down as if not able to decide where he wanted to touch him.

“Hey, uhm, I have an idea. How about you two take a break for, say, five minutes so we can walk to that portal and go back to New York where you could… I don’t know… _get a room!!!_ ” Kurt voice interrupted their intimacy.

Blaine cleared his throat and moved back. Sam missed him already thought their bodies still were close to each other. But Kurt was right, yeah, and they were still in Under-Earth, maybe they actually should go on now.

So they got up. Summerwhine looked as unimpressed as always as he screamed “On we go!” and continued the way. Sam didn’t know what exactly to do now, well, he couldn’t walk and at the same time stare at Blaine, could he? But then Blaine took his hand and briefly pressed his face against Sam’s shoulder, just for the sake of it, and Sam felt oddly proud. With the biggest grin ever he followed his friends.

“And it even means I will be able to find a new job!” Sam realised after a few minutes.

“I told you everything will be good”, Blaine said.

“Well, I didn’t believe you.”

Blaine laughed. Of course after the next turn on the way there stood a big fat box that reminded Sam of the Tardis – the portal.

“Wait. Why does it stand in the middle of nowhere instead of in the city?” Kurt asked.

“Tsk, tsk, that would be stupid, wouldn’t it?” Summerwhine said.

“Uh, no, it would be clever.”

“So here we part now”, Summerwhine said and wiped a tear from his eye.

“Will we come out in New York?” Rory asked, unaffected by the elf’s whining but curiously looking at the portal.

“I will miss you _sooo_ much, chosen ones and bargain ones. Maybe I will come and visit you in Middle-Earth some day!”

Summerwhine went for a hug. First Rory, who looked around in confusion until he realised what was going on. Then followed Kurt, Blaine and Sam. Because Sam was the last one Summerwhine also smacked his ass as he entered the Tar- the portal. Sam jerked around and sent him a glaring look but since the elf still cried he decided to not say anything. Instead he closed the door and shut out all light.

Kurt and Rory held up their blue glooming phones to see the way.

“Damn! Your phones are still working!” Sam exclaimed.

“You will be able to charge yours soon enough”, Blaine said. His hand found Sam’s again and they followed their friends. Sam really wanted to know how those portals worked. You didn’t have to say out loud where you wanted to go to or type your destination into a computer, nothing. You just went in and came out where you wanted to be. It was just uncanny.

Well, but at least it worked. When they reached a door and went through it they suddenly stood at the Time Square. Looking around there was no magical portal door to be seen, just the usual traffic and people.

“Wow”, Rory said. “That’s grand! If travelling only always could be like that!”

“Well. I need to go home and catch up a lot of beauty sleep”, Kurt said. He turned to go but then stopped and pointed vaguely at Sam and Blaine.

“Oh, yeah, congratulations. Good luck and everything.”

“Thanks”, Blaine said. Kurt nodded, waved Rory, too, and vanished in the mass.

“Uhm, just… we’re still living together and could’ve shared a cab home?” Blaine said.

“But Blaine, would you already want to leave me? You could come home with me. I will shave and then we can talk about the days that lie behind us.”

“Uhu, talk”, Rory mumbled. He hit Sam’s shoulder. “I’ll be off, then, too. Since our break up didn’t hurt anybody we can stay friends, right?”

“Yeah, whatever”, Sam said, but he grinned. Rory understood, also said goodbye to Blaine and left them standing in the middle of the Time Square. They looked at each other and Blaine smirked.

“Your place it is then.”

**Epilogue - One Year Later**

Sam laid out plates and cutlery on the flowery blanket. The sun was shining warm and it was a perfect day for a picnic in the Central Park. Not to forget that it was their anniversary.

“Ah! Nice weather”, Blaine said as he sat down, closed his eyes and held his face towards the sun.

“I so love you”, Sam said as he got out sandwiches. Blaine took his time to chuckle before he opened his eyes and turned to Sam.

“Assuming your talking to me and not to the food… I love you, too.” He glided closer, threw his arms around Sam and kissed him. Sam relaxed against those lips and kissed back for a moment, and when they parted he said: “Well, I was actually talking to the food but thanks.”

Blaine pretended to be indignant and lightly hit Sam’s shoulder. The blond laughed and went for another kiss.

“Chosen ones!”

It was like a far-away memory in Sam’s head. He hadn’t thought about their Over-Earth adventure in a long time so why did he now when Blaine’s lips were everything he wanted to focus on? Probably because it had brought them together. Without it he would have never fallen in love with Blaine, never broken up with Rory (well yeah, okay, that he would’ve done eventually) and never experienced the best relationship of his whole life ever.

“Chosen ones!!!”

They separated their mouths and Blaine frowned. “Have you heard that?”

“So it wasn’t in my head?” Sam asked. He slightly turned his head – and got a heart attack. There was a grinning elf face right in front of his nose. He and Blaine jerked back, and Sam pointed at the elf – Summerwhine.

“You!”

“Yes, it’s me! You still know me, oh, how long has it been?”

“One year exactly”, Blaine said.

“Wait, what? I thought it was like last week… just let me check my time travel agenda.” Summerwhine sat down crossed legged opposite to them, pulled out his phone and started typing.

Sam exchanged a look with Blaine, who shrugged.

“So, yeah, uhm, how are you?” he then asked Summerwhine.

“Oh, yeah, turns out I’m in the wrong time”, Summerwhine said. He shrugged and put his phone away. “Doesn’t matter, you still look as immature and naive as you did in Under-Earth.”

“Wow, thanks”, Blaine said.

“We’ve actually matured and everything”, Sam said. “We even had sex, too.”

Blaine blushed and hit Sam’s arm.

“What? That’s what you do, brag to your friends about stuff like that!” Sam defended himself.

“First, you do that when your partner isn’t around and second, Summerwhine isn’t our friend.”

Summerwhine gasped for air and laid a hand on his chest. “Whaaat?”

“Well, we haven’t seen you in a year”, Blaine said.

“Don’t listen to Blaine, of course you are!” Sam quickly said, throwing a reproachful look to his boyfriend who rolled his eyes.

“Here, have some cookies!” Sam offered Summerwhine a box with cookies in it. Instead of taking a few he took the whole box and placed it on his lap.

“Thank you, nice chosen one! Or wait! I should say ex chosen one, right? Yes.” He nodded and ate a cookie.

“So, how’s married life going?” Blaine wanted to know.

“Oh, really great! We were on honeymoon the whole last week, it was fantastic”, Summerwhine said.

“Only one week?” Sam asked.

“What can say, Army is a busy man. Being the prince of Under-Earth and everything”, Summerwhine said.

“Yeah, but aren’t you too? A prince. Of both Under- and Over-Earth now?”

“Oh but I’m a crappy prince.”

“You don’t say”, Blaine chuckled.

“How are your boyfriends doing?”

“Uh… they’re not our boyfriends anymore”, Sam said. “We’re together now in case you interrupting our make-out session didn’t make it clear enough for you.”

“What do you mean?”

Sam exchanged a clueless look with Blaine and then narrowed his eyes at Summerwhine. “What do _you_ mean?”

“I know that you two are romantic life partners, I’m not blind”, Summerwhine said. “But what’s that got to do with your boyfriends?”

“Uh, boyfriend is the term for a romantic partnership?” Blaine said.

“It _is_? Then you can have more of that in Middle-Earth? Oh, tell me more, I’m curious.”

“No, you can’t. Well, you can but it’s not the average thing to do”, Blaine said.

“Me and Blaine, we’re exclusive”, Sam added. Not that Summerwhine got the funny idea to want in or something like that.

“Are you saying you had other romantic life partners during the time you were in Over- and Under-Earth with me? Because I would’ve sworn you two were that for each other all the time.”

“That’s a misunderstanding”, Blaine said.

“But I interrupted you so often being intimate.”

“Uh, uhm, no?” Sam rubbed over his neck. This was getting awkward. He didn’t want to explain to Summerwhine how the process of falling in love worked because frankly, he didn’t know it himself.

“We were good friends, that’s all”, Blaine said.

“ _Boring!_ ” Summerwhine pretended to yawn. He looked at his phone and jumped up. “Oh well, I need to get S.U. from the port. Don’t tell her I said that but I think she’s got an eye on Sir Olaf.”

“Oh, poor man”, Sam said. Summerwhine nodded sincerely, grinned and waved them goodbye before he vanished into thin air.

“Huh. That was something”, Sam said.

“If he can travel through time why does he need to watch the time?” Blaine said. “I think he just wanted an excuse to get away from us.”

“Who’d do that? We’re awesome!”

“We truly are”, Blaine confirmed. He leaned to Sam, who quickly met his boyfriend in a kiss.

Yes. They were so awesome even Under- and Over-Earth couldn’t keep up with them. That’s how awesome they were.

**The end**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all my readers! :-)


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